Editorial: EPA soon to take charge

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2004 | 8:42 a.m.

In June an employee of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, one of several government agencies sharing responsibility for the cleanup of an abandoned copper mine in Northern Nevada, was carrying a Geiger counter as he walked around the property. As Sun reporter Molly Ball recounted in a story from July of this year, the BLM employee observed a radiation reading that appeared to be too high. So he went ahead and obtained roughly 100 soil samples at the former Anaconda mine, located just outside of Yerington, a town of about 3,000 people who live 55 miles southeast of Reno. Subsequent tests revealed radiation levels that were 200 times normal. Although the radiation levels aren't high enough to cause radiation sickness in the short term, health problems can occur if there is long-term exposure. Excessive levels of radiation from uranium, which does occur natu rally in the Yerington area, hasn't been the only problem discovered. Testing also has found that mercury, arsenic, berylli! um, lead and other toxic substances have found their way into drinking water supplies.

The discovery of the high radiation levels immediately resulted in renewed calls by an environmental group, Great Basin Mine Watch, for Gov. Kenny Guinn to designate the former Anaconda mine a Superfund site. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., also asked Guinn to seek assistance under the Superfund law. Back in 2002 state officials had said that there was no immediate threat posed by the mine and that a Superfund designation carried such a negative connotation that it would have hurt the local economy in the Yerington area. Instead, the state Division of Environmental Protection, EPA and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management all continued to have an equal say in overseeing the work of Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO), which is responsible for cleaning up the site. It was just this shared responsibility, however, that resulted in inaction and a failure to get testing and a cleanup plan under way. What was needed was a single agency in charge to get things moving, something that the EPA had urg! ed the state to do in seeking a Superfund designation. The EPA believed ARCO was doing as few tests as possible and should have been doing a better job of coming up with a plan to clean up the site.

Late last week the state had a change of heart. Guinn announced that, based on the new concerns about the potential for groundwater contamination, he would ask the EPA to take on the responsibility for ensuring the cleanup of any radioactive or toxic contamination at the site. Although it isn't precisely a Superfund designation, EPA's oversight would be triggered by a provision in federal law that deals with the Superfund. Both Reid and Great Basin Mine Watch are glad that Guinn has taken this action. It's a sad commentary that it took this long to get this far, but we're more hopeful now that the EPA is leading this effort. The bottom line is that immediate progress needs to occur at the site to protect the people who live in the Yerington area.