Tribes slam Amodei plan to give polluted Nevada land to oil company

A Nevada congressman is pushing a bill to give more than 2,000 acres of federal land at a polluted mine site to the multinational oil conglomerate responsible for cleaning it up, despite objections from American Indian tribes downstream from the pollution.

Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said representatives from the oil company Atlantic Richfield Co., a subsidiary of BP, told him the proposed transfer of 2,062 acres of Bureau of Land Management property near Yerington would make cleanup of the former Anaconda mine more efficient and reduce the burden to taxpayers.

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Atlantic Richfield, a BP subsidiary since 1999, acquired liability for cleanup when it merged with Anaconda in 1977.

“BP came in and asked us to introduce a bill,” Amodei said. “This was a chance to allow the cleanup to go forward in a private context instead of a federal one.”

But the Chairman of the Yerington Paiute American Indian tribe called the bill, H.R. 5347, a “shameful” infringement on tribal sovereignty. And the chairman of the Walker River Paiute Tribe called the bill, “a blatant slap in the face.”

“The Yerington Paiute Tribe is deeply concerned after reviewing Congressman Amodei’s proposed bill,” Tribal Chairman Laurie Thom said in a letter to members of Nevada’s Congressional delegation, the Secretary of the Interior, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, the Nevada Inter-tribal Council and Walker River Paiute Chairman Amber Torres.

Read a letter from the Yerington Paiute Tribe about Amodei's bill:

Thom said the bill is a threat to tribal members’ access to cultural heritage sites and future economic development.

“It is shameful that a congressman of the state of Nevada would give away land for free without consideration to the cost to constituents of his own state,” Thom wrote.

She added, “As the Tribe has shown interest in purchasing these lands, it is difficult to understand why these lands would be included in a no-cost land transfer to a foreign corporation.”

Torres, whose Walker River Paiute Tribe has more than 3,600 members, said neither Amodei nor anyone else consulted with the tribes about the bill, which she said undermined government-to-government relations between the tribes and non-Indian governments and ran afoul of the BLM’s trust responsibility to engage in regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration with federally recognized tribes.

”It is just a blatant slap in the face to us as tribes,” Torres said. “The whole way it is happening without our perspective on the impacts is disheartening.”

Map: This is a majority of the public land parcels that would be affected by Amodei's bill (Data provided by ESRI and the BLM. Map by Brian Duggan/RGJ):

Amodei defends the bill

Amodei described the bill as necessary for implementing a broader agreement between the state of Nevada, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Land Management and Atlantic Richfield Co. to clean up pollution at the site, which is largely attributed to operations at the former Anaconda copper mine from the 1950s through the 1970s.

The agreement is an alternative to designating the land as a federal Superfund site, a designation the tribe supports but is opposed by non-Indian officials in Yerington and Lyon County.

“A Superfund listing is not a great thing for someplace like the Mason Valley which grows produce,” Amodei said. “If there is a way to make it go away without it ever being one, yay.”

Amodei also disputed the “no-cost” characterization of the transfer.

He said the cost of cleanup, which is part of the deal, could be more than $100 million.

“The agreement is you don’t get the conveyance until you perform,” Amodei said. “If they do everything they are supposed to do it is their land at the end.”

According to language in the Amodei bill, the company needs access to the BLM land in order to complete the job.

Consultants for the Yerington tribe, however, say the Atlantic Richfield can conduct the cleanup without owning the land.

They also say claims the deferral agreement that prompted Amodei’s bill will enhance private funding are empty, because the company is liable for the cleanup costs no matter which government, state or federal, conducts oversight.

“BP is responsible for the cleanup; that is not questioned,” said Dietrick McGinniss, an environmental consultant to the tribe. “The question to ask is why is BP getting free land when they are responsible for the cleanup already.”

The tribe also questions why the bill includes land that’s a source of clean fill dirt and property that’s near U.S. 95A and State Highway 339.

Tribal officials say if the bill were enacted the state could end up repurchasing the property in the future to accommodate possible future highway expansion.

“This seems like a misallocation of taxpayer dollars and a significant and unnecessary expense to the state of Nevada,” Thom wrote.

Here is a full copy of the Amodei's bill:

What was left behind after the heyday

The former Anaconda mine has been a source of dispute, and pollution, for decades. Prospectors discovered copper in the area in the 1800s and large-scale exploration started in the early 1900s with the Empire-Nevada Company.

In 1941 Anaconda Copper Mining Company bought the site and started mining in 1952, eventually producing about 1.7 billion pounds of copper.

Anaconda actively mined through 1977 when it was purchased by a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Co., which shut down operations in 1978.

In 1982, Atlantic Richfield sold the private property on the site to local businessman Don Tibbals who converted former worker housing to the Weed Heights subdivision before selling the rest of the property Arimetco, which resumed mining of new ore and Anaconda tailings.

Arimetco went bankrupt in 1999 and ceased operations, leaving the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection to cope with the aftermath.

Testing showed increased levels of beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lead and selenium in groundwater. There’s also concern about radioactive material in soil and groundwater.

A question over state or federal oversight

Although there’s widespread agreement BP, which acquired Atlantic Richfield in 1999, is responsible for the bulk of the cleanup, oversight of the process has swung between state and federal entities.

State leaders, non-Indian local officials and the company have generally favored state led oversight. The Yerington tribe prefers federal oversight, saying the EPA has more resources than the state to enforce requirements under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, which governs Superfund projects.

The EPA first suggested a Superfund listing in 2000 and state officials resisted.

In 2004 the state, citing lack of resources, asked the EPA to step in and oversee cleanup. The EPA again sought to include the mine on its National Priority List of Superfund sites.

In 2016, Sandoval agreed to a listing in part for the chance to access federal funding for the cleanup.

This year, however, Sandoval changed course and signed an agreement with EPA administrator Scott Pruitt that deferred the listing after Atlantic Richfield agreed to fund the cleanup.

In an email Sandoval spokeswoman Mary-Sarah Kinner said the governor supports “the concept,” of Amodei’s bill because “it facilitates quicker cleanup of the Anaconda Mine site and the governor’s office supports that idea.”

Asked whether Sandoval supports all the details in the bill Kinner said, “As with any piece of legislation, amendments may be made and the Governor’s Office would reserve further comment.”

In response to Thom’s letter Kinner said, “the proposed legislation is a federal issue and we would encourage Chairman Thom to work with the federal delegation.”

Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., whose district includes the land, opposes Amodei’s bill.

“Let’s call this bill what it is, a land grab that robs the Bureau of Land Management of 2,000 acres of public land, reduces access for Nevadans, and ignores the wishes of our tribal communities, all under the guise of environmental remediation,” Kihuen said. “This is nothing more than a corporate giveaway that sidelines environmental concerns and compromises Nevadans’ health, our state’s natural beauty, and puts profits over people.”

A spokesman for BP did not return calls for comment.