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EPA, WATER BOARD AGREE ON PLAN TO STEM POLLUTED RUNOFF FROM LEVIATHAN MINE

Release Date: 7/20/2000
Contact Information: Lisa Fasano, U.S. EPA, Press Office, 415-744-1587

     SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board agreed on a plan today to treat acid mine drainage stored in ponds at the Leviathan Mine Superfund Site outside Markleeville, Calif. in order to prevent overflow next winter.

     Earlier this week contractors hired by the water board began treating the site's five ponds   which store up to 16 million gallons of acidic waste to reduce the dissolved concentrations of metals and separate the solids from the water. A small percentage of the solids with higher levels of toxic metals will be sent to a permitted facility, and the rest can safely be put back into the mine pit.  The clean, treated water from the ponds will be discharged into Leviathan Creek.

     "This much-needed action will serve as an effective stopgap measure to address polluted runoff while we continue to forge ahead on a long-term cleanup plan," said Keith Takata, director of the EPA's Superfund program for the Pacific Southwest.  "We appreciate the water board's efforts in taking the initiative to address this contamination before winter hits.  At 7,000 feet, the summer work season at the mine is fairly limited."

     "We are confident that this effort will be successful in eliminating the possibility of any pond overflows during the 2001 winter and spring periods," said Harold Singer, executive officer of the water board.
                   
    State cleanup crews will treat the ponds by pumping water out and adding controlled amounts of lime to neutralize the acid.  The metals settle out of the water with the lime-treatment solids. Sulfuric acid is formed when water mixes with sulfur-rich waste rocks at the 250-acre mine site, and this in turn dissolves arsenic and other toxic metals.

     The water board which anticipates spending roughly $2 million on site activities this summer will also repair site fences, clean out drainage ditches, monitor water quality in the creek and continue revegetation efforts to lessen future runoff.  In the meantime, the EPA is continuing to negotiate with ARCO, the successor to the former mine operator, to address other sources of Leviathan mine acid drainage for a long-term remedy.

     For the past 40 years, acid mine drainage from the site has killed off aquatic life in Leviathan and Bryant creeks downstream of the mine.  The East Fork Carson River, which is 10 miles downstream of the mine, had been threatened by site runoff in the past. In addition, the local watersheds   along with other streams and lakes in the Eastern Sierra served as historical habitat for the Lahontan cutthroat trout, a federally listed threatened species.

     State and federal agencies have tried several approaches to clean up the site since the mid- '80s, however, drainage from the site continues to pollute the streams.   In 1999, the water board removed 4.5 million gallons of water from the ponds.  Last spring, the board, with EPA oversight, pumped relatively clean snowmelt from the ponds' surface and prevented overflow of mine drainage into Leviathan and Bryant creeks.

     The U.S. EPA named the Leviathan Mine a federal Superfund site in May. The mine has not operated since 1962.