June
20, 2014
The
Union of Grass Valley
By Dave Brooksher
A investigation by the Nevada County grand
jury has found that contaminated water from old mines is getting into local
streams, possibly compromising the health and welfare of some residents.
The report lists six local, county and state
agencies — all of which are ostensibly responsible for monitoring this kind of
environmental hazard — and all of which have reportedly failed to do so
effectively.
“For over 30 years, there has been a lack of
coordination and communication and a failure to accept responsibility by
federal, state and local governmental agencies in efforts to monitor the water
quality in some areas of Nevada County,” the report reads.
The grand jury’s inquiry focused on the Lava
Cap Mine, the North Star Mine and the Empire Mine. Problems were found in each
instance, with contaminated mine water entering the watershed.
With regard to the Lava Cap mine, it found
that tailings and effluent had been released into the watershed in 1979 and
again in 1997, but no remedial actions have occurred despite agreement between
agencies that there was a need to take action.
At the Empire Mine State Historical Park, a
discharge path known as the Magenta Drain carries mining effluent through an
area frequented by families and children.
Fencing and other measures have been put in
place to protect the public from that hazard, but the report claims that the
appropriate permits from the city of Grass Valley or from the Building
Department were apparently never issued.
The grand jury found that the North Star Mine
site, which has been inactive for more than 50 years, continues to discharge
contaminated water into Wolf Creek.
During storm conditions, the Drew Tunnel, a
component of the North Star Mine Site, discharges as much as 400,000 gallons of
contaminated water daily.
Lead, mercury and other contaminants from the
North Star Mine are reportedly getting into the watershed upstream from the
wastewater treatment plant, which is not designed to handle inorganic materials
of this kind.
The Newmont Mining Corporation, which owns
the site, is obligated to build its own wastewater treatment plant under the
terms of a settlement agreement reached with Grass Valley.
But the grand jury report says that facility
was supposed to be completed by February 2013 and that the city has failed to
seek judicial relief in enforcing the settlement.
“I’m a little concerned with some of the
accuracy of the information that the grand jury received,” said Tim Kiser,
Grass Valley’s top engineer and director of the public works department.
“Our settlement does state that Newmont
Mining should be providing a treatment plant by 2013, but it also provides that
the deadline can be extended if the regional board fails to act or if there are
environmental issues.
“I think the grand jury is looking at one
line of the agreement and maybe not all the details,” Kiser said.
“Right now, Newmont has been pretty much in
compliance with the agreement. I’m not sure what judicial relief they’re
thinking the city could be seeking from our settlement agreement.”
The report cites a lack of communication or
coordination, coupled with a failure to accept responsibility by state and local
agencies. Moreover, the existence of those failures was known to the agencies
involved, and they may have attempted to obfuscate that information, it says.
“There was internal acknowledgement of
frequent failures by governmental agencies in these matters. Numerous efforts
were made to conceal these failures from the public,” the report concludes.
These findings are mostly based on interviews
with personnel from the City of Grass Valley and from the county, according to
the report. The grand jury report also quotes statements of responsibility from
the websites of the State Water Resources Control Board, the California
Department of Toxic Substance Control and the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
Those statements of responsibility seem to be
the basis for the grand jury’s conclusions about the failures of those agencies
to effectively regulate water contamination from old mining sites.
Similar excerpts were used to implicate
Nevada County’s Planning Department and the Department of Environmental Health.
Representatives from the State Department of
Water Resources’ Regional Water Quality Control Board, the State Department of
Toxic Substances Control and the Department of Fish and Wildlife all responded
to calls before deadline, stating they were still in the process of reviewing
the grand jury’s report.
Brian Foss, from the Nevada County Planning
Department, made a similar statement.
The grand jury recommends that to remediate
these issues, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors should meet with the
agencies listed above to develop and implement a written agreement defining
each agency’s responsibilities in safeguarding Nevada County’s water quality.
The report recommends that the supervisors
direct Steve DeCamp, director of the Community Development Agency, to implement
policies and procedures for periodic testing of surface and groundwater at the
locations identified in the report. It also advises that the agency revisit the
Lava Cap Mine incidents in 1979 and 1997, ensuring appropriate cleanup and enforcing
a “Clean Up and Abatement Order,” which has already been issued.
As for the city of Grass Valley, the grand
jury’s recommendations involve implementing a legal strategy to ensure
adherence of the Newmont Mining Corporation to the settlement agreement with
the city, while taking immediate steps to protect the public from toxins
associated with the Magenta Drain in Memorial Park.
Readers can find the full report
at the Nevada County Superior Court’s website or at The Union’s website.
To contact Staff Writer Dave Brooksher, email
dbrooksher@theunion.com or call 530-477-4230.
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