SWAN Village-to-Village Messaging System: Superfund listing is weighed for two mines

Superfund listing is weighed for two mines

Posted by Margaret on 5/29/2009, 2:33 pm
65.74.12.161

Superfund listing is weighed for two mines

ALEX DeMARBAN

May 21, 2009 at 11:05AM AKST

Two abandoned Alaska mines, operated when there were few, if any, environmental laws, might become national cleanup priorities.

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering listing the former mines — Red Devil mercury mine in Southwest and Salt Chuck gold, silver and copper mine in Southeast — as Superfund sites, a state official said.

They would be the first Alaska mines to receive that designation.

A listing would speed up long-needed cleanups and provide millions of dollars to do a thorough job, said Anne Marie Palmieri, a project manager with the state’s contaminated sites program.

Contamination from both mines is extremely high and could put subsistence fishermen and hunters at risk, Palmieri said.

People who live in villages nearby often hunt and fish for food, but said they avoid the sites. The entrance to the Red Devil mine is gated, though beer cans and shotgun shells, as if for target practice, have been found there, Palmieri said.

The state’s contaminated sites program supports the listing, as do area residents, she said.

Officials with Calista, the Native regional corporation for the Red Devil area, don’t want a listing until a study determines how much mercury is naturally occurring and how much is caused by mining.

And the Alaska Miners Association, which hasn’t taken a position, worries that mining opponents will use the label to attack today’s industry, including efforts such as the Donlin gold prospect near Red Devil and the Pebble gold and copper prospect in the Bristol Bay area.

“They’ll say, ‘Oh, look, mining, you can’t trust the industry, irrespective of the fact this was done many, many decades ago,” said Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association.

Over the years, numerous studies have been done at both mines. At Salt Chuck, toxins from the mine have shown up in subsistence foods.

As for Red Devil mine, no studies have been done showing the effects of the contamination on fish or area residents, Palmieri said. A Superfund designation would pay for such studies.

The mines operated when there were none of today’s requirements for state and federal environmental permits. There were also no laws requiring mines be cleaned up before they’re abandoned.

Massive piles of toxic tailings — the crushed and processed rock left over from the extraction process — were dumped out in the open.

Today, tailings must be contained in a protected and managed facility, such as a tailings impoundment, so contaminants don’t leach into water or soil.