Pure water is more precious than gold

"Protect Special Places from Mining -- Support HR3968 National Parks, Wildernesses, sacred sites, precious water sources -- polluted by mining? That's what the federal government's interpretation of the current mining law allows. The 133 year old General Mining Law of 1872 prioritizes mining as the "highest and best use" of public lands -- lands owned by all Americans. It allows mining even when it would threaten drinking water -- mining even when it could undermine a Wilderness. -- mining even when it would destroy a sacred area continuously inhabited for 20,000 years. There is a reasonable, common sense solution to this problem. Nick Rahall (D-WV), Chris Shays (R-CT), and Jay Inslee (D-WA) have introduced into Congress HR3968, the Federal Mineral Development and Land Protection Equity Act of 2005. This new bill moves mining law out of the 19th century and into the 21st. It would protect special places and important water sources by creating sensible rules that would encourage responsible mining, while simultaneously prohibiting mines that would threaten places that we hold dear.(...)"  » original news