Mining keeps Nevada at top of pollution list

Friday, May 24, 2002 | 9:42 a.m.

Worst states The top 10 states for toxic release:

1.008 billion pounds.

956 million pounds.

745 million pounds.

535 million pounds.

302 million pounds.

283 million pounds.

226 million pounds.

204 million pounds.

163 million pounds.

157 million pounds.

Nevada's huge mining industry has for the third year running placed the state No. 1 in the nation in the release of toxic substances, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.

The EPA's annual Toxic Release Inventory list is an annual measure of toxic chemical releases, transfers and waste generated by facilities of all kinds in the United States. In Nevada, 94 facilities discharged more than 1 billion pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, land and water in 2000, the year studied.

One-third of the total came from a single source, Barrick Goldstrike Mines in Elko.

But Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association, argued that the listing categorizes the state unfairly.

The problem is that every gram of mercury, lead, arsenic and every other potentially toxic element or compound pulled from the ground in a mining operation has to be reported, Fields said. Toxic materials are commonly present in rock in low concentrations.

Much of that material is still locked in the rock, however, and will not reach the environment, he said.

"As long as mining is required to report the rock that it has to move in the course of operations, and the components of that rock are reportable for TRI purposes, we are going to have very high numbers in Nevada," Fields said. "In terms of potential risk to the public, there is no risk."

Environmentalists, however, dispute that. Tom Myers, executive director of Great Basin Mine Watch, has argued for years that mining releases toxic materials into the air and water, both on the surface and in the ground.

"It doesn't surprise me that Nevada is the No. 1 toxic polluter in the country," Myers said. "When they dig up rock and bring it to the surface, exposing it to air and water, all these elements and compounds can leach into the waterways and into the groundwater."

Myers said the problem is especially acute in the north and central parts of the state where mining is the base of the economy. The state produced more than $2.2 billion in gold last year, 76 percent of all U.S. production.

Other mining activity, including copper, silver and crushed-rock production, accounted for about $300 million last year.

Myers said the mining can sometimes immediately affect the environment through toxic leaching, but other effects won't be felt for generations. Some rocks will leach toxic metals into the environment for hundreds of years, he said.

"The number here is just incredible for arsenic being dumped on the ground," he said. "Over 400 million pounds, a third of the total, is arsenic."

The EPA agrees with some points from the mining industry and some points from the environmentalists.

"The TRI is not a risk inventory," said EPA Toxic Release Inventory Coordinator Adam Browning. "This is just a starting point.

"In terms of evaluating a particular facility or industry, you need to combine this information with other information ... in order to get to the point where you can actually evaluate the risk."

A small fraction of Nevada's total -- about .5 percent -- comes from industries such as petrochemical manufacturing often associated with toxic releases, the EPA reported. Mining alone pulled more than 1 billion pounds of potentially toxic materials from the earth in 2000.

The amount of toxics decreased 14 percent since 1999, the EPA said, despite the first-time inclusion of "persistent bioaccumulative and toxic" chemicals such as mercury and dioxin.

This is only the third year that mining has been required to participate in the 16-year-old annual inventory of toxic releases. Nevada has topped the national list since mining was included in the inventory.

With mining deleted from the total, Nevada ranked 43rd among the 50 states.