(Photo by Carrie Jung - KJZZ)

The State Mining Inspector's office estimates there are about 100,000 abandoned mines in Arizona.

(Photo by Carrie Jung - KJZZ)

State abandoned mine supervisor Tom White estimates this mine shaft is about 50 to 60 feet deep.

(Photo by Carrie Jung - KJZZ)

The minimum action required for an abandoned mine is fencing, but landowners can choose to take it a step further and fill them in.

Opening a mine in Arizona today is no easy feat. It requires hundreds of pages of paperwork and several rounds of environmental studies. But, that wasn’t always the case. Until the 1970s the mining industry nationwide faced minimal regulation. That's left quite a mess behind.

For Tom White, the abandoned mine supervisor with the state, navigating potholes, dirt roads and the occasional boulder is all in a day’s work.

On a windy day near Kingman, Ariz, he drove on an old mining road and checked up on an abandoned mine the state recently fenced off. 

"And you can see how loose the ground is around it," White said. "Along the edge here you can see that it wouldn’t take much to disturb any of that. And if it goes, you go."

Exactly how far would you go? White isn’t entirely sure. But he takes a guess by throwing a rock down the shaft and counting how long it takes to hit the bottom.

"A lot of times you can hear them," he said as he tosses the pebble. "It’s about 50, 60 feet down."

According to the Arizona Mining Inspector’s office, this is one of approximately 100,000 abandoned mines that dot the landscape in Arizona. White said new ones are reported on a weekly basis. With so many mines, state officials run into several issues, one of which is illicit activity.

"People dump trash in them, stolen cars, bodies, a lot of homicides," he said.

But Assistant State Mining Inspector Tim Evans added the biggest concern is people falling into them or getting crushed by a cave in. He said his office is also worried about people exploring abandoned mines for fun, without knowing just how dangerous they can be.

"What we have are oxygen deprived mines," Evans said. "People would go in there and might not even realize and might think it’s the excitement that’s making their pulse rate increasing."

When in reality, they’re asphyxiating. So, why does Arizona have so many abandoned mines in the first place?

"When you get a successful gold mine like you had at the Oatman, what happens is you get a lot of copycats and everybody starts punching holes," Evans said. "They do 200, 300 foot and they drive drifts and when they don’t get gold then they go on to the next place and the next place."

Evans said much of the issue stems from the relatively lax regulation policies at the turn of the century. Right now, coal mining companies pay a royalty to help reclaim abandoned coal mines from that time period. But that’s not the case for other industries like uranium, copper and gold.

Basically, if you own the property, the abandoned mine is your responsibility. Here in Arizona, you must at least fence off and put up signs around an abandoned mine. Additional reclamation is up to the landowner. When it comes to mitigating environmental concerns, that piecemeal approach can lead to some problems.

"When you waste rock piles associated with old mines that have the capability of getting wet from weather," said Dr. Gail Heath, a mineral resource scientist at the University of Arizona. "And that’s really the environmental impacts that we have."

And when water runs over those old waste pilesthey produce acid as the material inside begins to oxidize, Heath explained.

"They would then go into drainages or seep into the ground, whatever the case might be in the terrain that the mine waste piles are located," he said.

The dry climate in Arizona does reduce some of the environmental concerns as toxic water dams and buildup aren’t common here, Heath said. But after the Gold King Mine Spill in Colorado dumped about a million gallons of water laced with heavy metals into the Animas River last month, there’s new attention on the issue. Legislation has been introduced to congress aiming to impose a new royalty for abandoned mine reclamation. Supporters say it would reduce local waterway pollution.

"It would in turn create a reclamation fund and help ensure the public that these mines will be cleaned up and provide the trust that the public deserves," said Jennifer Krill, the executive director of the nonprofit Earthworks.

State mining industry representatives, however, say while royalties for reclamation are a good idea in theory, they need to be coupled with more timely and efficient permitting processes.

In the meantime, White said until anything happens in congress he’ll be needed to do his job for the foreseeable future.

"I could spend several lifetimes going after these things," he said.