Contact your Delegate and urge them to support HB2213 – Delegate Guzman’s gold mining-related legislation
Delegate Elizabeth Guzman is carrying a bill, HB2213, to ensure that the impacts of commercial gold mining to air, water, and public health are studied before permits, if any, are issued for commercial gold mines. Please call and email your delegate to urge them to support this bill! Please follow the updates as this bill works its way through committees, and needs your continued support.
Exciting Update, January 22: In a 13-5 vote, the House Rules Committee voted to send HB2213 to the House Floor. Please now sign a letter and send to the whole House of Delegates, asking them to support this bill.
To reach out to your delegate and senator:
A sample script can be found below, along with resources to share with your delegate to educate them on the issue:
Sample script for emails or phone messages (please edit where needed to personalize and add the resources below):
Delegate [Senator]________,
I am a concerned constituent reaching out to make you aware of the threats of gold mining to Virginia’s water and environment. Exploratory drilling for gold is happening in Virginia as we speak, and this drilling was done without the locality knowing about it until recently.
The threats to Virginia’s water and communities from gold mining are numerous, and it is absolutely critical that Virginia establish a moratorium on commercial gold mining at least until the extent of these threats can be studied. Delegate Elizabeth Guzman is carrying a bill to address this, HB2213, and I urge you to co-patron and support this legislation. I look forward to your response and will be watching your position closely.
Resources to include when contacting your delegate:
For updates on the bill’s progress,
check this google doc regularly please.
We will update this action page as the bill’s status changes throughout the General Assembly Session and include legislative targets to contact depending on which committee the bill will be heard in.
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Other actions to take
Share the 11 min informational video and this action document with your networks to inform them of the threats of gold mining and how they can take action.
Watch this 1 hour webinar to inform yourself.
Write a letter to the editor about the issue. A guide for writing letters to the editor can be found here.
Please reach out to Stacy at johnsonsc3@gmail.com and let us know of any responses from your legislators or of any questions you may have! With deep gratitude we thank Stacy Lovelace for launching us on this project and shepherding us through the maze!
Please also check out Virginia League of Conservation Voters webpage for taking Action. Deep thanks goes to Chris Leyen, Mike Town and the fine folks at LCV for their advocacy in helping to get this bill ready to roll.
This is encouraging.