As other state agencies continue studies, county supervisors
consider lawsuit to force cleanup of New Idria mercury runoff in
San Carlos Creek
Despite the lobbying efforts of local leaders, residents and
other government agencies, the state water board staff is not
recommending that South County’s mercury-polluted San Carlos Creek
go to the top of the federal cleanup list.
As other state agencies continue studies, county supervisors consider lawsuit to force cleanup of New Idria mercury runoff in San Carlos Creek
Despite the lobbying efforts of local leaders, residents and other government agencies, the state water board staff is not recommending that South County’s mercury-polluted San Carlos Creek go to the top of the federal cleanup list.
The State Water Resources Control Board – a subagency of CAL EPA — made the announcement last Wednesday, prompting frustrated San Benito County supervisors on Tuesday to place the issue on their Nov. 5 meeting agenda.
“We’re going to consider our options, including possible litigation, if necessary,” said Supervisor Richard Scagliotti after Tuesday’s board meeting.
Supervisor Ron Rodrigues, who testified before the state board in May in an effort to force cleanup, was disappointed when he heard about the state’s decision.
“What does it take?” he said. “I don’t understand their thinking. We have to keep after them.”
In May Rodrigues traveled to Sacramento to speak before the SWRCB during hearings on what is called the “303d List,” which makes recommendations to the federal Environmental Protection Agency on what should get cleaned up and when it’s done.
The mercury-riddled, rust-colored San Carlos Creek shares space on the list with nearly 800 other polluted California waterways, but its cleanup status did not change. Because it is in a remotely populated area, it is still categorized as “low priority.” It is described as having mercury as its sole pollutant and is slated to be studied for possible cleanup sometime after 2015.
The 303d List maintains that the portion of the creek that is contaminated is only four miles long. At the podium in May, Rodrigues had told SWRCB director Arthur G. Baggett Jr. that during the wet seasons the San Carlos flows into eastern tributaries of the Panoche Fan and the Mendota Pool, and ultimately its contamination reaches hundreds of miles into the Central Valley.
Environmental scientists who have studied it consider San Carlos Creek to be one of the worst occurrences of acid mine drainage in the state. Its toxicity is caused by the course it takes through miles of cinnabar mining tunnels and around manmade mountains of cooked quicksilver ore that are leftover byproducts of the New Idria Mercury Mine.
After operating for more than a century as one of the biggest producers of mercury in the western hemisphere, the mine shut down in 1972, but its legacy as a colossal polluter has lived on.
“Everyone who has land along the San Carlos Creek has a right to use that water, but they can’t,” said Dr. Khalil Abu Saba, a longtime advocate for the creek’s cleanup. “This is an obvious case of pollution discharging into the waters of the state. It eventually goes coastal.”
Abu Saba believes the state isn’t considering the bigger picture and that it’s not listing the waterway properly.
“How does the pollution discharging from the New Idria Mine affect people’s ability to use that water for fishing and drinking and irrigation and watering their livestock, from the headwaters all the way down through the Panoche Fan?” he said. “This is not just about mercury. You got a waterway that’s being hammered by acid mine drainage. How does the presence of sulfide in the acid mine drainage affect the conversion of mercury to methylmercury in the Delta Mendota Wetlands Wildlife Refuge? If the state’s listing doesn’t accurately reflect the facts that it’s not just mercury, that it’s acid mine drainage, that gets in the way when you’re looking for funding to find solutions.”
Abu Saba added that if the county is frustrated enough to sue the state, they might want to look at other water keepers, such as environmental groups and fishing clubs, to join in the litigious dog pile. The scientist plans on attending the supervisors’ next meeting to give a presentation on San Carlos Creek and what might be done to mitigate it.
SWRCB spokeswoman Liz Canter said neither the SWRCB board of directors, who are slated to give their stamp of approval to the updated list on Nov.19, nor the staff that made the recommended changes to the list are willing to comment.
“Something in your county may have high priority for you,” said Canter. “The board rated it and disagrees. I’m sure that everyone thinks their waterway is high priority. But each (of the nine) regions has more than 160 listings.”
That didn’t appease Supervisor Bob Cruz, who is also in favor of suing CAL EPA.
“We should sue,” he said. “Our county has always been treated like a small county that doesn’t even exist in the state of California. With all the data and hard work that Ron (Rodrigues) did, and for it to be thrown out the window, it’s ridiculous. In fact, it really pisses me off.”
Ironically, other government agencies – mostly federal — are looking into the wide-ranging affects that the New Idria Mine has on the surrounding environment. The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife is finishing a report that will address the affect acid mine drainage has on wildlife, including aquatic life and plants. If the contamination affects species living on neighboring federal lands, they might have a case — especially if endangered species or migratory birds are impacted.
One of those species could be the nearly extinct California Condor. Six of the gangly juvenile birds are scheduled to arrive at the Pinnacles National Monument next month in an unprecedented attempt to reintroduce the species to the county where they once roamed freely. Only 42 condors live in the wild of California today.
Park biologist Rebecca Leonard says the condor’s flight footprint can extend hundreds of miles from its home base. That puts the rare birds, known for their fondness for taking baths in streams, squarely in a flight area that includes airspace over the toxic creek — where the water has many of the same elements found in battery acid.
“It’s very possible they will fly over San Benito Mountain and the New Idria area,” said Leonard.
According to Fish and Wildlife biologist Melanie Markin, the agency believes it can secure some funding to assist in the creek’s cleanup. They also hope to ferret out the individuals responsible for the massive pollution.
The local Bureau of Land Management has expressed an interest in joining the sister agency in its endeavors.
“It is a huge eyesore,” said geologist Tim Moore, when asked about his agency’s concern for the watershed. “BLM is interested in helping out in any way we can in getting this cleaned up.”
Meanwhile, the owners of the New Idria ghost town were back in court Tuesday for a hearing on the upcoming case against them for felony toxic dumping in the defunct ghost town.
Sylvester and Sylvia Herring of San Jose run a group home drug rehabilitation program called Futures Foundation and keep a skeleton crew of two “family members,” as they call those seeking treatment, at the site. After two years of investigation, the county District Attorney and the state EPA filed two felony charges and 10 misdemeanors against the Herrings when thousands of cans of hazardous liquids, including paint and solvents, were found on the property in an EPA raid one year ago.
The Herrings run a garbage-hauling operation using a workforce of family members.
A preliminary hearing to determine whether the case will go on to a jury trial was scheduled for Nov. 13.
Editor’s note: Reporter Kate Woods lives downstream from New Idria in the San Carlos Creek watershed area.
