EPA Reaches Cleanup Agreement for Abandoned Sierra Sulfur Mine
An agreement on a new cleanup at an abandoned Sierra sulfur mine that has polluted nearby streams for years was announced Thursday by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Keith Takata, head of the EPA’s Superfund program for the Pacific Southwest, said his agency reached the Leviathan Mine agreement with California’s Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Takata said contractors began this week to treat five ponds that store up to 16 million gallons of acidic waste at the mine, near Markleeville in Alpine County, Calif.
He termed the work “an effective stopgap measure . . . while we continue to forge ahead on a long-term cleanup plan.”
Harold Singer, the water board’s executive officer, said the water treatment should eliminate any threat of toxic overflows from the ponds next winter or spring into nearby Leviathan and Bryant creeks, which flow into the East Fork Carson River.
The EPA also is continuing its negotiations with Atlantic Richfield Corp., the successor to the former mine operator, to deal with other sources of acid drainage from the mine. ARCO acquired the mine from Anaconda Corp. in 1978, and California took over the site in 1983.
Acid drainage has killed aquatic life in the adjacent creeks. Pollutants also have reached the Carson River, which runs into Nevada.
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