Hollister
– A plan for reducing mercury in the San Francisco Bay could
bring a cleanup to San Benito County’s defunct New Idria
Quicksilver Mine.
Hollister – A plan for reducing mercury in the San Francisco Bay could bring a cleanup to San Benito County’s defunct New Idria Quicksilver Mine.
The state water board recently approved a 70-year cleanup plan for mercury in the bay. According to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the state’s Central Valley region is the single largest source of mercury contamination to the bay.
Carrie Austin, an environmental engineer with the San Francisco water board, said water from New Idria indirectly feeds into the bay through the Central Valley.
The plan caps the amount of Central Valley mercury that can flow into the bay, Austin said, but the details, including a possible New Idria cleanup, will be up to the Central Valley water board.
“We’re very closely coordinated,” she added.
Central Valley water board staff did not return Free Lance phone calls Wednesday.
The mine, south of the Panoche Valley, was one of North America’s largest mercury producers during the 19th and 20th centuries, but it shut down in 1974.
Lonnie Wass of the Central Valley water board has said New Idria is on a list of 40 abandoned mines that need cleaning. Acidic water flowing out of the mountain has polluted nearby San Carlos Creek. But Wass has said New Idria isn’t a priority because no one drinks from the creek and the water travels for more than a mile before it percolates into the ground.
Ray Iddings of the nonprofit New Idria Foundation said there’s no evidence mercury in New Idria needs to be cleaned up.
“The mercury is natural,” he said. “They’re just grasping at straws.”
Iddings, who hopes to turn New Idria into a historic park, argued the real danger comes from vandalism of the now-abandoned mining town.
Water that flows into the bay builds up in fish, according to the San Francisco water board. Dangers from mercury poisoning include tremors, anxiety and memory problems. It’s particularly risky for fetuses and young children.
The California Office of Administrative Law and the federal Environmental Protection Agency still need to sign off, Austin said, but the EPA has already said it will approve the plan.
