EPA to host requested Anaconda Mine groundwater meeting

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 Superfund Division is hosting a community meeting on Aug. 6 for an update meeting on cleanup activities related to the former Anaconda Mine site, with the main topic to discuss groundwater issues in the area north of the Anaconda Mine.

The meeting is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Yerington Elementary School cafeteria, located on the east side adjacent to Oregon Street of the school at 112 California St.

This topic had been requested by the community at prior meetings and they have requested the groundwater contamination issues be discussed in detail at a future meeting. The groundwater issues are described as Operable Unit 1 among the cleanup activities/projects at the Anaconda site.

A notice from the EPA of the meeting indicated groundwater experts from EPA would be available at the meeting as well as other staff from EPA and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection involved in the cleanup project.

Due to a request from local residents to change up the time of community meetings between the day and night, this is a night meeting after the prior meeting on April 2 was conducted during the daytime.

A groundwater investigation community meeting was conducted by EPA on Jan. 31, 2013. A brief fact sheet was prepared by EPA just prior to that meeting and an EPA groundwater investigation update fact sheet was dated August 2013. A groundwater investigation results and next steps fact sheet was released by EPA on April 22, 2010, which largely talked about uranium contamination.

These documents and others are available at the EPA's Anaconda mine.

Background of Superfund law

The EPA is addressing the issues at the Anaconda Mine under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, which is commonly named Superfund. So, it is a Superfund site although it isn't on the Superfund National Priorities List, and it is being administered under a section of the CERCLA law, which was done under an agreement with the state of Nevada.

However, not being on the NPL means that the site isn't eligible for Superfund, a trust fund, money for long-term cleanups.

The federal CERCLA law of 1980 was designed to be used to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances as well as a broadly defined "pollutants or contaminants."

The NPL is the list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial or cleanup actions financed under the federal Superfund program. EPA regulations outline a formal process for assessing hazardous waste sites and placing them on the NPL after an assessment process.

CERCLA authorizes two kinds of response actions, removal actions and remedial actions. Removal actions generally are short-term actions that are classified as emergency, time-critical and nontime-critical.

Some cleanup actions at the Anaconda site have been done as removal actions, while most of the current projects are remedial actions. There also have been some interim response actions at the site. Remedial actions are usually long-term response actions.

Superfund cleanup activities historically have been paid for by potentially responsible parties, which in this case has been Atlantic Richfield Co., which purchased the Anaconda Co. in the late 1970s, either by compelling the companies to do the cleanups or to reimburse the costs if done by the government. When a party cannot be found or is unable to pay, Superfund money can be used.

The Arimetco mining company, which mined at the site in the 1990s, filed bankruptcy at the end of the 1990s and thus hasn't been able to pay for cleanup activity costs.

As part of groundwater activities, ARC has installed groundwater monitoring wells, north of the site, starting in 2008; has done a domestic monitoring well program started in 2009 involving samples taken; and ARC provided bottled water to residents if their wells exceeded certain uranium levels during sampling events, although a project funded by ARC to extend the city of Yerington water system to this area will preclude the need for the bottled water program.

The CERCLA law was enacted in the wake of the discovery of toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal and Times Beach in the 1970s. A site can be removed or deleted from the NPL after it has been deemed all response actions are complete and cleanup goals achieved.

The Yerington Paiute Tribe many years ago formally requested this site become a Superfund site and placed on the NPL, while the city of Yerington, Lyon County and the state of Nevada have opposed that designation, with the main reason that cleanup has been done without the stigma of a Superfund or NPL site designation.