Mine cleanup will take time, money

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1997 | 2:57 a.m.

"We think we have a handle as to what is coming out of the mine and what we're dealing with. It's a matter now of funding," Robert Dodds, assistant executive officer of the Lahontan Region of the California Water Quality Control Board, told a joint meeting of the Douglas County Commission and Alpine County, Calif., Board of Supervisors.

Acid drainage from Leviathan Mine has produced a constant flow of arsenic, mercury, copper, zinc and other heavy metals into Leviathan Creek in remote Alpine County in the eastern Sierra.

The creek, which runs through U.S. Forest Service and Washoe Tribe land, merges with Bryant Creek and eventually feeds into the East Fork of the Carson River, a major water source for neighboring Douglas County in Nevada.

The site hasn't been mined since the early 1960s and is now owned by the state of California.

The Washoes took their concerns to state and federal environmental officials last year.

In September, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the site an emergency, but a stopgap effort to treat contaminants proved unsuccessful.

During spring runoff, huge evaporation ponds designed to hold 15 million gallons of acid drainage typically overflow, sending millions of gallons of toxin-laced water into Leviathan Creek.

Jim Smitherman of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection said no significant levels of toxins have been detected in the Carson River, several miles downstream of the Leviathan Creek.

Ranjit Gill, chief of planning and toxins for the Lahontan water board, said his agency has been working with University of Nevada, Reno and University of California at Davis researchers to remedy the problem.

"Things are better than before," he said, adding that experts hope to have a definitive treatment program designed by spring.

Gill, too, said impacts to downstream areas are minimal. "I think impacts have been lessened to a great degree," he said.

Alpine County Supervisor Chris Gansberg Jr. assured his Douglas County counterparts that the problem has not been ignored.

"It's not a new problem," he said, noting that California has spent millions of dollars on the site since the mid 1980s. "It's not like we're just sitting around trying to ignore it. Things are happening."

Supervisor Eric Jung agreed.

"We are paying attention and we share your concern," he said. "Our role partly at least is to make a lot of noise ... to get funding."