Nevada accepts Superfund priority listing to clean up abandoned mine near Yerington
CARSON CITY — Nevada “cautiously” accepted a Superfund priority listing to clean up an abandoned copper mine near Yerington under an agreement reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state officials announced Tuesday.
The move follows months of back-and-forth between Gov. Brian Sandoval and regional EPA Administrator Jared Blumenfeld, who in December told Nevada his agency was prepared to put the Anaconda Copper Mine on its national priority list to tap federal funding for cleanup.
Nevada balked, arguing that the EPA’s insistence that the site in the rural agricultural area poses an imminent health hazard was overblown and unfounded.
After working with the EPA and local community leaders, environmental regulators agreed progress has been made at the site. Regulators also agreed that the main area needing cleanup funding consists of a relatively small portion — roughly 260 acres — of the site that was owned by the now-bankrupt Arimetco.
Atlantic Richfield Co., now a BP subsidiary, is responsible for cleaning up the rest of the 3,400-acre site that includes groundwater contamination from the abandoned Anaconda Copper Mine.
“The Anaconda issues, we have a responsible party there to deal with those issues,” Nevada Division of Environmental Protection administrator Dave Emme said.
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources director Leo Drozdoff said that about $31 million is needed for work on the Arimetco portion.
“We looked at seeing if there are other options to pay the tab,” Drozdoff said. “This is largely about a funding gap.”
State and local officials have opposed a Superfund priority designation for years, fearing it would stymie economic development and taint the area’s agricultural industry.
In a letter Tuesday to Blumenfeld, Sandoval said Nevada will “reluctantly” concur with initiating a priority listing based on six understandings reached with the federal government.
The state wants the EPA to stress that the site poses no contamination threat to the area’s $225 million annual agriculture industry and to assure that federal funds are available to perform the necessary work.
The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection also wants a five-year cleanup schedule by June and to remain the lead agency overseeing the site. The state also wants flexibility on cost sharing and the option to consider alternative funding sources.
“I believe the above represents reasonable conditions that respond to environmental and economic concerns responsibly, respects the concerns of community leaders and area residents and reflects our communications and those you have conducted with the community as well,” Sandoval wrote.
The governor said everyone involved “wants timely and responsible remedies,” but said they fear a drawn-out process and a cloud of “perceived distortions.”
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., applauded Sandoval’s decision, calling it a significant step.
“For decades, this mining site has sat as an abandoned cesspool of toxic substances,” Reid said in a statement. “The federal government repeatedly offered its help while the state, under multiple administrations, resisted.”
The designation, he said, will expedite cleanup and allow Lyon County to move on from the “poisonous burden.”
Anaconda Copper purchased the Lyon County mine in the early 1940s. It was bought in the 1970s by Atlantic Richfield. Those operations ceased in 1982.
The site covering 3,400 acres near Yerington, a farming community 65 miles southeast of Reno, was sold a few more times and was last owned by Arimetco, which went bankrupt in 1997 and abandoned the site in 2000, EPA documents show.
Residents who filed a class action lawsuit on claims that mine owners tried to hide drinking water contamination from uranium, arsenic and other toxic substances won a $19 million settlement in 2013.
Some studies showed 80 percent of wells near the mine contained dangerous levels of toxins.
In his letter, Sandoval noted that domestic well owners near the mine have been provided with alternate water supplies and the city of Yerington’s public water system, which is not affected by mine leakage, is being extended to serve those residents.
The mine is the second priority Superfund site in Nevada. The other is an 80-mile stretch of the lower Carson River, which was designated in 1990 because of mercury and other contamination from mining activity on the nearby Comstock in the previous century. The river designation remains in effect today and people are still advised not to eat the fish.
Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Find her on Twitter: @SandraChereb
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