State and federal leaders have joined county officials’ efforts
to transform New Idria’s polluted mine and creek into a stream of
tourism revenue.
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, county officials who
recently made a presentation on New Idria to a California water
authority in Sacramento reported back with gleaming news that the
state appears willing to assist a cleanup and abatement
process.
State and federal leaders have joined county officials’ efforts to transform New Idria’s polluted mine and creek into a stream of tourism revenue.
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, county officials who recently made a presentation on New Idria to a California water authority in Sacramento reported back with gleaming news that the state appears willing to assist a cleanup and abatement process.
County officials have considered turning the blighted ghost town – once an area bustling with mining lore – into a hotbed for attractions to capitalize on its history.
“It looks positive at this point in time, and to be honest with you, I’m a bit surprised to say that,” said County Administrative Officer Gil Solorio, one of several county officials at the Sept. 4 meeting. “Hopefully if we keep pushing, we may be able to essentially clean up pollution in New Idria.”
The water board has started by directing its legal team to identify a person or business responsible for the environmental mess – laying the groundwork for potentially pushing liability away from the involved government agencies.
Water board officials also said they would explore the possibility of issuing a cleanup and abatement order, according to Supervisor Reb Monaco, who represents the New Idria area. If that happens, the state would largely manage and potentially finance the efforts.
The state’s Cleanup and Abatement Fund, however, has no available allocations for this year, meaning a state-commissioned cleanup could be delayed one to two years.
Dr. Kahlil Abu-Saba, a chemist hired to research and spearhead a New Idria pollution cleanup, presented the report to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. Solorio and Monaco were also in attendance and briefly spoke to state officials.
Since the item was merely an informational report and no official decisions could be made, the water board informally committed to moving New Idria up its priority list, according to Solorio.
Normally, an issue affecting such a minimal number of people would not gain an immediate show of support from the water board, officials said.
New Idria is an isolated town southeast of the Panoche Valley with a barren landscape and a fleeting population that is rumored to be less than 10.
“There aren’t a lot of people who are necessarily affected by the pollution of New Idria,” Solorio said.
But water board members cited the long-standing existence of the pollution, along with support from a variety of other agencies, as their reasons for joining the efforts, according to Monaco.
“We had to spend a lot of time just locating it for them (water board members) on a map,” Monaco said.
The state’s involvement comes on the heels of U.S. Rep. Sam Farr’s August visit to the ghost town in south San Benito County, after which he vowed to pursue federal support for the effort.
New Idria’s mine site, which is listed on the state register of historic landmarks, was the largest producer of mercury in North America during parts of the 19th and 20th centuries, according to Abu-Saba, who works for Applied Marine Sciences.
After the 1920s, business for mercury mines boomed, and New Idria became the No. 1 supplier of the element to the U.S. Department of Defense, Abu-Saba said. The mercury was used in munitions, detonating agents, batteries and electronic components that “helped fight and win World War I, (World War) II, the Korean War and Vietnam.
“But you can’t pull that much mercury out without making a mess,” he said.
The last mining operation to inhabit the town, New Idria Mining and Chemical Company, left the area about 30 years ago. Since 1976, because of the site’s inactivity, highly acidic water has flowed out of the mountainside at a rate of 10 to 55 gallons per minute, Abu-Saba said.
The water, with an extremely low pH of 2-3 while containing iron and other metals, flows into the San Carlos Creek and causes the health–hazardous waterway to turn orange. The pollution has “destroyed” about five miles of the creek and any potential for aquatic life, according to Abu-Saba, who also researched New Idria as a graduate student in 1997.
Meanwhile, the most evident problem with New Idria’s mercury pollution, Abu-Saba said, is the imprint it leaves on the area’s overall aesthetics.
“What really jumps out at you,” he said, “it’s ugly!”
Local officials, who have paid $30,000 for Abu-Saba’s consulting services, prefer to avoid spending county money on a potential cleanup. The cost could reach $1.5 million to $2.5 million, according to Monaco, not including costs of a subsequent monitoring program.
“The county is not in the position to spend any money, other than on the consultants we hired,” he said.
For now, the county will wait to hear back from officials with both state and federal agencies. It is not clear which federal agency could potentially allocate funding, but Abu-Saba said the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection Agency are two possibilities. And local officials said they would not mind if the state takes a couple years to offer funding.
“The problem has been around for 33 years,” Abu-Saba said. “We call that warp speed.”
