The dark side of the Gold Rush legacy

Published by MAC on 2008-03-13

SACRAMENTO - More agency collaboration and funding is needed to address the
widespread pollution of public lands and waterways in California, state
Assembly leaders concluded at a joint hearing held at the capitol Tuesday.

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 Elizabeth "Izzy" Martin, Sierra Fund chief executive
officer. She pointed to an unclaimed $100 million remaining from Proposition
84, the Clean Water, Parks and Coastal Protection Act.

"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 Nevada County including Carrie
Monohan, staff scientist for Friends of Deer Creek, and Don Ryberg, tribal
chairman of the Tsi-Akim Maidu.

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 Sierra Nevada mining
projects washed down streams to feed the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a
watershed that supplies 80 percent of the state's water needs.

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 Central Valley require management agencies to post fish
advisories.

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 Nevada County during the heat of the
Gold Rush all but decimated the tribe, Ryberg said.

"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
California and Nevada tribes about the impacts of mercury. Including
California tribes in the mercury discussions is necessary because many sites
sit on sacred lands, the Sierra Fund report said.