Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
March 5, 2008
1. Top Items
Mercury's Gold Rush legacy may be worse than thought - Stockton Record
The dark side of the Gold Rush legacy - Grass Valley Union
Mercury's Gold Rush legacy may be worse than thought
By Hank Shaw, Capitol Bureau Chief
SACRAMENTO - Many area residents know that the miners of the Gold Rush unleashed a toxic legacy on the region in the form of millions of pounds of mercury - mercury that has accumulated in soil, plants, fish and birds, many of which we eat.
But a legislative hearing on the mercury problem Tuesday revealed some disturbing new facts about this relic of the Gold Rush, which was used to help extract tiny bits of gold and other metals from rock:
» What we know about the extent of the contamination is likely only a slice of how much quicksilver is really out there.
» And the common practice of restoring seasonal wetlands - dry in summer and wet in winter - actually makes the mercury problem worse.
"If we do wetland restoration, then we potentially cause more methylation of mercury, which is the toxic form of mercury," said CALFED Director Joe Grindstaff. "That's a big problem for us."
Thousands of normally dry acres in the Delta and the
One of the most polluted areas is the Yolo Bypass, which, when it floods, releases enormous amounts of methylmercury - a substance created by bacteria when mercury-containing muck dries out. Methylmercury can accumulate in the tissues of animals, including humans.
The north Delta is worse the south Delta, according to mercury testing by state and federal scientists, but every river in the region sports advisories about eating fish: Long-living fish or predators such as sturgeon or striped and largemouth bass are particularly risky, and authorities recommend that children shouldn't eat them from the Delta.
But the mercury problem is deeper than just fish.
A report by the Sierra Fund released in conjunction with Tuesday's hearing of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee took a wide-ranging look at the impacts of Gold Rush mining on the environment.
Californians living near the old mines in the Sierra foothills are exposed to more mercury, arsenic and asbestos than those who live elsewhere, but elevated levels of mercury are present in the silt and sediment in all our rivers and underneath all our reservoirs.
Long-term, high-level exposure to methylmercury can drive victims insane. Mercury use among haberdashers led to the expression "mad as a hatter." And at even higher levels, it can cause seizures and death.
People most likely to consume this much mercury would be those who eat lots of fish from local waters, notably members of Stockton's roughly 10,000 residents of Cambodian descent whose diets are rich in fish.
Officials have recently expanded their outreach efforts into these communities, and the eating guidelines are now posted in a slew of languages, including Hmong and Vietnamese.
But the problem will not begin to improve unless
Indeed, state and federal officials don't even know exactly how many mines are out there, nor do they have a clear idea about which are the most toxic.
"This is a multibillion-dollar problem we need to address, and we all have limited funds," said Dennis Geiser of the USDA Forest Service.
Geiser said even the cheapest cleanup would cost roughly $250,000. He cited one example of a copper mine that is leaking into
Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, who convened Tuesday's hearing, said the state must do more to grapple with the problem.
"The implications are just beginning to be understood, and the solutions are not clear," she said. #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/A_NEWS/803050331
The dark side of the Gold Rush legacy
Grass Valley
By Laura Brown, staff writer
But where the money will come from to pay the hefty cost to clean up mercury, arsenic and asbestos left behind by Gold Rush-era miners remains to be seen.
"We are again faced with cleanup costs with no source of revenue," said 8th District Assemblywoman Lois Wolk.
The cleanup is "a multi-billion dollar issue," said Dennis Geiser, a Forest Service environmental engineer.
Money set aside for cleaning the state's waterways could be tapped for mercury removal, said
"There's always money. It's just a matter of the priorities you assign to it," Martin said.
Martin was one of three panelists from
The joint informational hearing was heard by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee and the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.
To make the most of limited dollars, the Sierra Fund recommended pooling sources and forming a multi-agency working group to address mining toxins.
At the close of the meeting, Wolk agreed such a collaboration was needed to address what she called an "enormous" and "stark" problem.
There are 47,000 abandoned mines in California, according to an assessment by the California Department of Conservation and outlined in a Sierra Fund report titled "Mining's Toxic Legacy: An Initiative to Address Mining Toxins in the Sierra Nevada."
The report, issued for the first time at the hearing, outlined a list of recommendations that included increasing collaboration and research, improving education on human health hazards, encouraging community monitoring, creating funding mechanisms for cleanup and reforming suction dredging laws.
Costs range from tens of thousands of dollars to fill abandoned mine shafts to millions of dollars to clean up mercury hot spots such as the Boston Mine near Greenhorn Creek.
Contamination stretches well beyond mine sites. An estimated 13 million pounds of mercury has entered the environment from Placer mining since it started 150 years ago, according to the Sierra Fund report.
Much of the mercury used to extract gold from ore in
Mercury continues to flow from mountain streams when storms create high flows. Methylmercury, the form found in fish, poses health risks, especially to children, and can impair language and memory.
Mercury-laced fish found in a number of lakes and streams in the Sierra foothills and
Mercury on sacred lands
State and federal agencies working to restore the Delta are met with a paradox: Restoring habitat for fish such as salmon and other Delta wildlife can dislodge methylmercury from the sediment.
On public lands, abandoned mines in areas once considered remote now are used frequently by hikers and off-road enthusiasts.
"Risks to public health and safety increase as more people move in," said Cy Oggins, manager of the Abandoned Mines Unit for the state Department of Conservation.
The dark side of the Gold Rush legacy reaches beyond toxins that remain in the waterways.
Tribal chairman Ryberg described his ancestral lands, from a village site where the Capitol building sits now, stretching to the Sierra Crest.
"It has been Maidu lands for 10,000 years. We're from the land. We are the land," Ryberg said.
The stampede of miners that came to
"Our Maidu way of life, our ceremony, our songs were gone," Ryberg said.
For the past few years, the Tsi-Akim have held conferences with 26
http://www.theunion.com/article/20080305/NEWS/411416803
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