New Idria’s proposed inclusion on the federal Superfund cleanup
list is long overdue, but its recent progress has a lot more to do
with new scientific revelations about mercury pollution into the
San Francisco Bay than any newfound sense of interest toward this
county.
New Idria’s proposed inclusion on the federal Superfund cleanup list is long overdue, but its recent progress has a lot more to do with new scientific revelations about mercury pollution into the San Francisco Bay than any newfound sense of interest toward this county.
The fact that it took San Benito County officials more than a decade to gain serious attention reflects the federal government’s general tendency to brush off this area’s needs. But it also shows a wider, more problematic flaw in the system, as it literally took decades for biologists to realize mercury pollution from the New Idria mine might reach beyond an isolated disaster in a San Benito County ghost town. It might be inflicting serious damage to the largely pristine Bay, one of the nation’s most adored natural resources, and that is what finally opened the eyes of authorities at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Nothing more – nothing less.
Placement on the Superfund list would allow the EPA to use federal money to clean up the New Idria site, closed in 1972 because of pollution from its waste, which has poured contaminates into nearby rivers for 40 years, said an EPA communications coordinator for Superfund.
If federal authorities needed more than an orange tributary to capture their attention, they had that through the years, too.
Repeatedly over the past decade, county officials have sought outside help from the state and federal governments. They have presented research and expressed concern about the pollution and its impacts, both locally and prospectively to a wider extent as well. They have requested inclusion on the sacred Superfund list. They have been denied, again and again.
That is why it was a bit mystifying to hear first-year Supervisor Robert Rivas express disgust at colleagues and other county officials, past and present, over a lack of effort toward getting outside help on New Idria. At last week’s board meeting, Rivas read a prepared statement in which he called the site an “environmental catastrophe.”
“It’s about time. I hate to say this, but something like this would never be allowed to happen in a place like Monterey or Santa Cruz or Santa Barbara,” he said. “Environmentalists would have fought tooth and nail to make sure that their land was protected.”
Rivas, though, should have done some research of his own before assuming other county officials hadn’t done it themselves.
San Benito County officials have made the effort. They have pleaded for state and federal funding. This time it was different, but only because the EPA now believes the problem flows beyond San Benito County.
Perhaps it is a lesson in dealing with the federal government for the next environmental catastrophe that strikes San Benito County.
Perhaps next time, Supervisor Rivas will move to the forefront and spur action from the federal government.
