Long cleanup process begins with public meeting

Tom Gardner

Thursday, May 25, 2000 | 9:19 a.m.

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. - The process of deciding how to clean up one of the nation's most polluted mine sites got under way with an almost scholarly public hearing.

The Leviathan Mine, an abandoned open pit sulfer and copper source in Alpine County, Calif., annually dumps tons of deadly toxins into Leviathan Creek and its tributaries.

Those orangish-yellow streams can find their ways through picturesque canyons dropping out of the Sierra Nevada and into the East Fork of the Carson River in the western part of Nevada's Douglas County.

The mine has been added to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's list of Superfund sites which get special attention because of the extent of their pollution.

EPA experts told Wednesday night's meeting that while interim mitigation is reaping dividends, anything beyond that is long term.

"We're at a fairly early stage here. We need to pull together the existing information and see what we've got going," EPA remedial project manager Kevin Mayer said. "We're three years down the road at least."

EPA ecologist Ned Black said that work by California's Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board has helped keep most, if not all, of the toxins out of the Carson River.

The acid runoff is gathered in holding ponds where lime is added to help neutralize the solution and to cause metals like aluminum, copper and arsenic to precipitate to the bottom of the pools.

"So far at this time, we've not been able to detect a lot of ecological impact on the Carson River. We're not saying it isn't there," Black told the gathering.

While the potential damage of the runoff is causing concern on the receiving end in western Nevada and on the lands of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada, the tone of Wednesday's presentation by the EPA officials and questions from the audience of about 40 reflected a Geology 101 lecture, free of any rhetoric.

Mayer said that was the idea behind the meeting - the first of many.

"We're still laying out our understanding of what the problem is and stil grappling with proposals for ways to deal with this. We want people involved," he said.

The mine 25 miles south of Gardnerville operated intermittently from 1863 to 1962, producing copper sulfate and sulfur. The spent ore was scattered over some 250 acres and water running through it leached out the remaining minerals that decimated Leviathan creek and its tributaries.

Mayer said that along with finding ways of neutralizing the damage, the current studies initially have to set some goals.

"How clean is clean? That's one of the hardest questions we're going to be hit with," he said. "Coming up with a model ant satisfies every scientist is really pretty tricky."