The State - News from April 4, 1989

Arsenic has been detected in ponds near a 60,000-ton pile of partly processed gold ore in the Amador County town of Jackson, and authorities fear it is seeping into surface and underground water. James Brathovde, of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, said property owner Morse Van Horn has been ordered by the board to submit a report and preliminary cleanup plan by May 1. Van Horn, who permitted a Vancouver, B.C., gold firm to process the ore in return for a percentage of the gold, has sued the firm. He claimed it improperly allowed the rain to wash the arsenic free.