Over the past 100 years, much of the land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Alaska, has experienced some form of mining activity. These activities ranged from simply looking for minerals to building large mining operations. Sometimes the miners left behind safety and pollution problems that the BLM in Alaska must now address. The Abandoned Mines Land (AML) Program tries to take care of some of the safety and pollution problems but it is very expensive.

Because there is never enough money, the BLM must first consider watersheds damaged by abandoned mines. A watershed is an area of land where all of the water that rains on it runs into one river. Watersheds are very important because many things that happen there eventually affect the quality of water in the river. The quality of water is important to plants, fish, animals, and people. A special program called the Clean Water Action Plan has been created to try to fix some of these watershed safety and pollution problems. The following map shows the watersheds in Alaska. Watersheds may also be called Hydrologic Units and are identified by Hydrologic Unit Code Numbers.

The map below shows some of the current and past AML Sites in Alaska. To view a summary of the AML Site (if available) click on the name in the list to the right, or click on the number on the map. The link provided is to a combined table of current and past AML Site Projects in Alaska, where you can obtain more information about abandoned mines projects.