SWAN Village-to-Village Messaging System: Mine's History

Mine's History

Posted by Margaret on 5/29/2009, 2:35 pm, in reply to "Superfund listing is weighed for two mines"
65.74.12.161

Mines’ history
The Salt Chuck Mine, about 10 miles from the Tlingit village of Kasaan, population 65, operated from 1905 to 1941. About 10,000 dump trucks worth of contaminated soil was piled on an intertidal zone south of the mill, according to Palmieri and a state fact sheet.

High levels of toxins — copper arsenic and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs — have been found there.

Arsenic and PCBs have been linked to cancer. Copper adversely affects salmon, Palmieri said.

Also, vanadium — known to cause birth defects in animals — and arsenic hve been found in clams and mussels at levels that pose a risk to human health risk, according to the fact sheet.

Ten-acre Red Devil Mine, once one of the largest mercury mines in the U.S., produced 2.7 million pounds of mercury between 1933 and 1971, according to a state fact sheet.
The site is two miles upriver from the village of Red Devil, population 34.

It contains mercury at levels that are tens of thousands of times higher than state and federal limits, the fact sheet said. Very high levels of arsenic and antimony have also been found there.

Studies have shown that mercury can cause brain damage in humans, especially to infants and developing fetuses. Antinomy can cause heart and lung problems.

At least 5,000 dump trucks worth of contaminated tailings were dumped in the open there, the state said.

The tailings were used as fill for a barge landing in the Kuskokwim River and for pads beneath buildings.

Mounds of it ended up in Red Devil Creek, a tiny tributary flowing into the Kuskokwim River, because there was no other place to put it, Palmieri said.

Before the listing occurs, the EPA wants to know the state’s position by June 30.

Gov. Sarah Palin or Larry Hartig, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, will provide the state’s formal response, Palmieri said.

To assess public opinion about the idea, state officials in recent weeks have informally solicited comments from area residents, mining officials, Native corporations, tribes and others, Palmieri said.

The comment period ended May 15.

Residents near both mines, fearful that toxic heavy metals might pollute fish and food they eat, want the benefits a Superfund designation would bring, Palmieri said.