Alpine County supports federal funding for Leviathan Mine

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 1999 | 10:14 a.m.

"I think anything we can do to help the cleanup of this thing we should," Alpine County Supervisor Chris Gansberg said Tuesday.

The Leviathan Mine, located just east of here near the California-Nevada line, is an inactive sulfur mine now contaminating a nearby creek with acidic water containing dissolved toxic metals such as iron, copper, aluminum, nickel and arsenic.

The proposed Superfund listing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency started last month with the opening of a public-comment period that ends Dec. 21. Actual designation as a Superfund site could happen sometime after that.

At the Alpine County meeting Tuesday, Kevin Mayer, Superfund project manager for EPA, said the federal agency has received no formal comment from California. Nevada has commented but didn't support or oppose the listing.

The Leviathan Mine, which has been closed for 37 years, now looks like a several-hundred-acre white scar. Leviathan Creek, which runs through the site, is discolored and unable to support aquatic life.

The water eventually runs into the East Fork of the Carson River, which flows into Nevada.

The Leviathan Mine was first mined in 1863. Anaconda Co. bought it in the 1950s and ran an open-pit mine.

Lahontan acquired the mine in the 1980s, and state officials estimate it has taken care of 70 percent of the problem. Lahontan officials this past summer built a $1 million-plus treatment system.

EPA supports those cleanup efforts. However, federal and Lahontan officials agree there are other problems and the stream will still be contaminated. EPA officials think the Superfund status will help create more of a long-term cleanup approach.

The Superfund listing likely could bring a more focused approach to the cleanup, according to EPA. And it could hold ARCO, which has purchased Anaconda, and Lahontan financially responsible for the cleanup.