Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
February 25, 2009
4. Water Quality –
Mining companies agree to pay $3 million for Lava Cap Mine cleanup
YubaNet.com
Richmond sewer spills nearly 1 million gallons into Bay
The Contra Costa Times
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Richmond sewer spills nearly 1 million gallons into Bay
The Contra Costa Times – 2/24/09
By Mike Taugher
Signs were posted at several shorelines and parks in
Sunday's rainstorm flooded into cracks and leaks in the city's sewer collection system and overwhelmed the capacity of a sewage treatment plant, causing an estimated 890,000 gallons of untreated water to spill out of the sewer system near the
The company that runs
Quinlan added that the sewage was highly diluted by rain and water in the Bay and probably does not pose much of a health threat.
"I strongly believe the impact is minimal," Quinlan said.
The warnings are expected to be lifted after test results show safe levels of bacteria. The first test results were expected back late Tuesday.
Sewage spills during heavy rain are common in much of the Bay Area. Old, leaky pipes take in more rainwater than the systems can handle.
The company that operates
"A spill implies a preventable event," said Mark Grushayev, program manager for Veolia Water. "This is an overflow. The system is designed to overflow to the Bay instead of to the streets and houses."
State water quality regulators, who have the authority to issue fines, said they were investigating.
"We're looking into the spill and collecting information," said Gina Kathuria, a senior engineer at the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Also during the storm, an East Bay Municipal Utility District wet weather station at Point Isabel discharged 2.3 million gallons of sewage into
Williams said that until last month, the Oakland-based utility was not required to report such discharges if the wastewater was successfully screened and disinfected. But a legal settlement reached last month requires the district to come up with a plan to eliminate the partially treated discharges and to report them.#
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_11776705?source=rss
Mining companies agree to pay $3 million for Lava Cap Mine cleanup
YubaNet.com – 2/25/09
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24, 2009 - The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California approved a $3 million settlement today between the U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and settling defendants Newmont Capital Limited and Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Limited to resolve liability at the Lava Cap Mine Superfund Site in Nevada County, Calif.
The EPA and DTSC will split the settlement proceeds based on their proportionate share of total past and future costs to cleanup the site -- estimated at just under $50 million, with $1.86 million to be paid to the
To date, the EPA has spent more than $21 million at the site to clean up mine tailings and waste rock, collect and treat contaminated water from the mine, and divert the flow of clean surface water around contaminated tailings.
"Taxpayers are still paying for the legacy of the
Newmont Capital Limited and Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Limited -- two associated corporations -- owned and controlled the mine from 1983 - 1986, in a failed attempt to reopen the mine. Based on the Newmont entities' limited three-year association with the site and lack of active mining or exploration projects, the United States and DTSC believe that the $3 million settlement is fair and reasonable and consistent with the goals of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, also known as the Superfund.
The
In other efforts to recover cleanup costs at this site, the United States and DTSC filed a lawsuit against alleged former owner and operator Canadian-based Sterling Centrecorp Inc., and current owners Stephen P. Elder and Elder Development, Inc., seeking to recover the EPA's and DTSC's combined past costs of over $22 million as well as their future costs associated with the mine cleanup.
The Lava Cap mine, located 5 miles southeast of
The mining operations resulted in waste rock and a mill tailings pile at the site. Mill tailings, also known as rock flour, are extremely fine-grained materials with high concentrations of arsenic that are easily suspended in water and susceptible to being carried downstream.
In January 1997, the upper half of the log dam built on the property to hold the mill tailings in place collapsed -- discharging over 10,000 cubic yards of arsenic-contaminated tailings into Little Clipper Creek, which spread downstream to Clipper Creek and
The EPA conducted a removal action in 1997 and 1998 to address the tailings release, stabilize the remaining tailings pile, and improve drainage. The Lava Cap Mine site was placed on the Superfund National Priorities List in January 1999. The NPL is the EPA's list of hazardous waste sites potentially posing the greatest long-term threat to public health and the environment.
In September 2004 EPA issued its cleanup plan for the mine area and has since removed the tailings and sediment along Little Clipper Creek and consolidated this waste with the existing mine tailings, constructed a cap for the tailings pile, and replaced the failed log dam with a rock buttress. The EPA recently issued its cleanup plan to address the arsenic-contaminated drinking water wells, which will be implemented in 2009. The EPA also expects to issue its proposed plan in 2009 to address the large tailing-deposits located along a mile and a half stretch of the creek downstream of the mine.#
http://yubanet.com/regional/Mining-companies-agree-to-pay-3-million-for-Lava-Cap-Mine-cleanup.php
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