JEFFERSON CITY—Senator Gary Romine, R-Farmington, and Sen. Ryan McKenna, D-Crystal City, expressed their disappointment today in the governor’s recent veto of House Bill 650, legislation designed to create a safe, long-term lead mining industry with the potential to create hundreds of jobs throughout southeast Missouri and support numerous other ancillary businesses across the state.

“The governor often talks about how we can encourage economic development in the state, how we can create sustainable jobs for Missourians,” said Sen. Romine. “Yet here we have a company willing to invest millions into our state to create a clean, viable lead mining industry in Missouri, using state-of-the-art technology that all but eliminates the health risk to both workers and the public, which will create sustainable employment for generations of Missourians. Instead of supporting that effort, he vetoes a measure that is a necessary component to making this technology a reality.”

House Bill 650 would have capped the amount of punitive damages plaintiffs could receive in lawsuits involving areas of the state, including the Old Lead Belt, which is located in St. Francois County, Sen. Romine’s district. Punitive damages are intended to deter the defendant from engaging in conduct that formed the basis of the lawsuit. Compensatory damages are paid to plaintiffs to compensate for loss or injury. House Bill 650 would have only applied to punitive damages; compensatory damages, already allowed by law, would not be altered under the bill.

Since 1994, The Doe Run Resources Corporation, also known as The Doe Run Company, has spent tens of millions of dollars remediating chat and tailings impoundments, some of which were created in the early 1900s and all of which were in place when mining activities in that area ceased in the early 1970s.  Beginning in the 1990s, The Doe Run Company entered into a variety of arrangements with the Environmental Protection Agency to cover and stabilize the piles left behind by generations of miners.  While continuing to work with environmental regulators to conduct remediation, several civil lawsuits were filed against The Doe Run Company and other defendants, many on the eve of the effective date of the 2005 Tort Reform Statute.  These suits were filed in the City of St. Louis and remain pending eight years after their initial filing date. 

In a lawsuit unrelated to the remediation in St. Francois County, a City of St. Louis jury in 2011 awarded a $320 million punitive damage judgment against former owners of the primary lead smelter in Herculaneum, a facility now owned by The Doe Run Company.  It is that type of award that if levied against The Doe Run Company would force its closure and an end to the continuing remediation efforts.

“What kind of policy does this set in Missouri?” said Sen. McKenna. “The current owners of Doe Run, who did not benefit from the lead mining that produced the chat and tailings, have spent tens of millions of dollars to clean up the area in conjunction with the government. It has literally made every effort to remediate material left behind from generations of mining activities. Yet it can’t receive any kind of protection from the government? This sends a bad signal to any company considering doing business in this state.”

Doe Run is the last lead mining and metal producing company in the United States. The mining operations of the business are located in Southeast Missouri near the town of Viburnum in what is known as the New Lead Belt. Many towns and cities in the Southeast Region, around the Old and New Lead Belts, were founded in large part because of the mining industry. The company currently employs nearly 1600 people.

“If we don’t cap the amount of punitive damages Doe Run could pay out to plaintiffs, the company will go out of business. It’s that simple,” said Sen. Romine. “That’ll not only cost Doe Run’s current employees their jobs, it’ll remove any chance of current plaintiffs receiving any kind of legal damages and will stop the current remediation effort.  I will do everything I can to see this misguided veto overridden.”

Sen. Romine and Sen. McKenna both serve on the Missouri Lead Industry Employment, Economic Development and Environmental Remediation Task Force, which is charged with making recommendations to the General Assembly on ways to promote and develop a clean lead industry in Missouri and the economic impact of such an effort.

The Missouri Legislature will have the option of overriding the governor’s veto of House Bill 650 during the annual veto session in September.