Mercury rising: Meadow Vista lake yields toxic traces of Gold Rush
Mercury-extraction demonstration on Lake Combie could lead to larger project
MEADOW VISTA – A toxic vestige of the Gold Rush era is getting some special attention at a foothills reservoir near Auburn. Mercury, a byproduct of the gold-extraction process, is sitting in the mud and sand of countless rivers and streams throughout the Gold Country. Eating fish from mercury-laden waters leads to developmental delays in fetuses, infants and children. The Nevada Irrigation District’s Combie Reservoir could soon be in the forefront of efforts to clean up mercury with a dredging effort that could process 200,000 tons of sediment and remove an estimated 100 pounds of mercury. On Tuesday, district officials and the Canadian-based Pegasus Earth Sensing Corp. gave a demonstration of equipment that could separate out mercury without chemicals, also take out gold, and leave much of the cleaned material to be used as aggregate. The environmental study on the project was approved last week by the district board and work could start as early as April, said Assistant General Manager Tim Crough. As a side benefit, the project would help restore water-storage capacity in a lake that has been filling with sand and gravel, he said. While the gravel is expected to be sold to Chevreaux Aggregates, the district was playing host to a representative of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to win support to tap into federal economic stimulus and grant funding. The initial $100,000 for the environmental study came through the Sierra Fund. Methyl mercury is a neurotoxin absorbed into the food chain, which can have an impact on fish downstream as well as humans. Several foothills water bodies, including Camp Far West Reservoir, have warnings against eating fish caught there. Ted Reimchen, a geologist with Alberta corporation Pegasus, said the equipment can easily be added on by an aggregate operation without impeding its production. Gold is a welcome byproduct, with early tests at the site indicating 2.4 grams to 3 grams per ton. Crough said that the district would retain the gold but, while it could subsidize some of the costs, it would still not pay for the estimated $6 million needed over the life of the project. Carrie Monohan, science director with Nevada City’s Headwater Sciences, said the district found a state-of-the-art silent, electric dredge to answer nearby residents’ concerns about noise from the operation. Placer County and local residents’ group Meadow Vista Protection are locked in a lengthy legal battle over Chevreaux Aggregates building an asphalt plant at the site. Monohan said that a separate traffic study didn’t find the project would have a significant impact on Combie Road and others leading to and from the site. Crough said the project is a “flagship” effort for surrounding water agencies and irrigation districts, that could be replicated in many other reservoirs, including the NID’s own Rollins Lake near Colfax.
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Best be cleaning this up now to make way for the new layers of mercury on the way.
Wait till this token eco-friendly gesture of fluorescent lighting residue (mercury) finds its way back into our lives.
I'm sure those who stand to make millions upon millions in this assault on the incandescent bulb used the smallest print legally possible on the "compact fluorescent" packaging re; special disposal requirements.
Q; If every single light bulb in America was fluorescent, how many lbs. of mercury is in play?
The scientific community cannot prove within normal parameters that developmental delays in fetuses, infants and children are actually caused by eating fish that show trace mercury. I would like to see an indepth study on the children of parents that have done illegal and even some legal drugs relating to the afflictions that their children have. Mike, you are correct, if the community that finds harm from a source that has been inplay for 150 years sanctions the fluorescent bulb over incandescent as a real forward looking replacement, just reveals how hypocritical they really have become.
Gruber,
Not as much as the lead used for the replacement of electric car batteries or the coal burned to recharge them. All of these feelgood ecoscams are wonderful as long as the energy is generated somewhere else.
fuhrsg:
Agreed.
No doubt they will set up shop in corrupt countries where EPA stands for
Expel Poison Anywhere. And, just because they claim that batteries can be recycled
is based on the assumption that the batteries make it to the recycling plant.
For those of you who would like to further educate yourselves on mercury poisoning there is an outstanding new book out: "Diagnosis: Mercury" by Jane Hightower. Ignorance is not bliss in this, educate yourselves and make choices accordingly.
You all know that Mercury is normally found throughout the area since it is also a natural occurring element. There was a seepage out of the ground for years near the middle fork of the American River. It's just like asbestos in the El Dorado Hills area, it's there and it has been for eons and will continue to be there.
With all your high tech science you it should be easy to figure out how much money the gold,sand and gravel are worth Before you decide to charge the taxpayes
They are lying when they say that removing 200,000 tons of sediment will not increase truck traffic from the Chevreaux Meadow Vista quarry (now run by Teichert). Carie Monohan (science director) is also lying when she states that there is no impact to wild life in the Bear River from the extraction operations. In fact, they will be removing all the fish eggs, and bottom feeders’ habitat with this project. Suction dredge mining has been temporarily banned in California but water restoration projects were exempted. Combie reservoir represents less than 1% of NIDs total storage. This project is all about sand for Teichert materials and nothing else. Why did they hide the "mitigated negative declaration" public comment deadlines from the public. None of the homeowners around the reservoir received any notification of pending deadlines.
For years local gravel companies used mercury float tables to separate gold from from the gravel. This mercury was not only produced by the 49ers but by gravel mining operators. These operators should be responsible to pay for their part of the cleanup. The tax payer gets zapped again by industries who are not required to take responsibility for their pollution.
Grass Valley has a mining operation scheduled for the Idaho Maryland mine in the future; will they make the same mistake and not bond the mining company against damages?
This is just another example of corporate welfare. Enviromental cleanup my a$$.
ChuxxR,
I agree with you if you mean they're not going after the mercury as much as they are after the GOLD!
fotojoye is likely correct that a great deal of this mercury they are now finding was lost by mining operations other than the 49ers.
The BS part is how the taxpayer will somehow end up paying for the extraction.
Cinnabar(Mercury) is a rock formation that occurs through out or region. It like asbestos are natural to our area, cleaning up the toxins will never happen as they continue to leach out. Just maybe it is the people not the environment that are harmful, Combie has been cleaned up over the years by Chevreau and company, this is nothing new. Clementine is a sediment dam and a number of years ago a man, I believe his name was Naylor tried to get a permit to dredge it at no cost, he was turned down.
I THINK YOU ARE ALL NUTS MERCURY IS WORTH MORE THAN GOLD RIGHT NOW . BUT IF YOU SELL IT BACK TO CHERVREAUX/ TEICHERT . THE SAC RIVER IS SO FULL OF IT THE D.FG. TELL'S YOU NOT TO EAT THE FISH MORE THAN ONE TIME A WEEK OUT OF THE RIVER . BUT THAT IS FOR THE TRASH FISH BASS STERGEON BOTTOM FEEDRES. TEICHERT/ CHERVREAUX THEY WILL JUST MILL IT. AND GET MORE MONEY..AND WHAT THEY DONT WILL STILL RUN DOWN THE RIVER AS THE 49'ERS DID . LOOK AT THE NORTH FORK CLIMINTINE THATS FULL OF IT/ AUUBURN RIVENE IS TOO.I GET MORE MERCURY THANE GOLD OUT .I TAKE IT AND BURN IT OFF AND GET THE GOLD OUT MERCURY WILL CONTACK IT'S SELF TO GOLD NO MATTER WHAT SIZE IT IS .JUST GO PANNING ONE DAY AND SEE HOW MUCH SILVER STUFF YOU GET IF IT'S SILVER STUFF DONT FOOL WITH IT .IF IT IS ROUND BALLS IT IS FULL OF GOLD /SMALL FLAKES /MAYBY IF HARD IT MAY BE A SMALL NUGGET???BE WEARE DONT GET IN YOUR HANDS TO MUCH IT WILL FIND THE LOWES POINT IN YOUR BODY AND CANT GET IT OUT .AND YOU WILL DIE FROM MERCURY
sorry clemenentine ? no spelle ck
100 lbs that not much/ go to grass valley the tables ran that much a day over the tables and off the end they had no pumps to pick it up.they just put it back on the tablesfor the next in shift that run 24 hr a day
Can't argue with the govt. Already part of Obos stimulus package. Gotta spend that money. Maybe they can cap the natural mecury seepage in the American River too. Should only cost about $10 mil or so. Just $8 mil less than Michelle, Valerie and Oprah's trip to Denmark...
I am both shocked and dismayed by some of the comments posted here. On one hand, there are those (ultra left?) that see this as a corporate conspiracy to make money. On the other, it is a liberal conspiracy (ultra right?) to fleece the federal government (therefore the taxpayers) of something that is not that dangerous. Allow me to address both with what I know.
a) Mercury has been deposited (accidentally and purposely)in gold country waters and soils by placer gold mining operations that used mercury to separate the gold from sediment through amalgamation. Conservative estimates, based on widespread sampling through multiple organizations and agencies, of spillage/leaking of mercury amounts to approximately 8 million pounds. More liberal estimates place this number around 13 million pounds. Studies of river and lake sediments have shown that this accounts for 66% of the total mercury in the ecosystem. In other words, man has deposited twice as much mercury in the environment than nature has.
b) Minimata disease was identified in Japan in 1956 as a result of acute mercury poisoning resulting from the ingestion of fish contaminated with mercury. Less severe poisoning can and has occurred from eating contaminated fish of which the EPA has identified species and waters that are at risk. This occurs through a process called biomagnification or bioaccumulation where mercury becomes more and more concentrated as it moves up the food chain.
c) Currently there are no long term studies either reported or underway that track long term exposure to mercury. Warnings over exposure to it is based on evidence from acute poisonings and laboratory studies on tissue lines. The reality is that medical science knows what mercury does to the organs and it knows that once there it has a bad habit of staying there.
d) There are natural processes that put mercury into the environment. Cinnabar deposits will be chemically and biologically altered so as to release mercury into soil, water, and air. Erupting volcanoes on land and in the sea will also release mercury into the environment. This has been going on for hundreds of millions of years. As I stated earlier, however, this accounts for only 33% of the total mercury present in the ecosystem (worldwide!) since the dawning of the industrial revolution.
@fourgen:
Cinnabar contains mercury sulfate HgS which must be processed by heating with another substance to extract the mercury; it doesn't leach out of the cinnabar. It is anthropogenic which means it is man made; all the mercury in the streams was a result of man putting it there.
So what I fail to understand are the objections to removing mercury from the environment to the best of our abilities. If a corporation can make some money in the process of doing what it was going to do if the mercury weren't there, then great! That is that much less than with which the taxpayer must be burdened.
And yes, unfortunately the taxpayer is going to be burdened because of practices performed by ignorant and/or greedy people/corporations. Since those responsible are no longer around to be held accountable, it falls to the present generation. Much of the gold recovered during the height of placer/hydraulic mining directly funded the federal war effort against the Confederate States. This makes the mess a federal problem and the federal government pays for things with taxpayer dollars. I, for one, would rather see them spend money on this than for AIG employees to get their bonuses (I know I am oversimplifying).
Lastly, I hope the miner that burns his mercury does a little research as to what happens to that mercury he is burning off to reclaim gold.
The following plus many other products use mecury. If mecury is being recovered from the silt why can't it be sold to help pay for the dredging? Can anyone project the consequenses/risk of changing all our light bulbs from incandesant to CFL?
Fluorescent bulbs
Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)
High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps
Ultraviolet lamps
Neon lights
Antibiotics
Contact lens solution
Dental Amalgam
Diuretics
Ear and Eye Drops/Eye Ointment
Hemorrhoid relief ointment
Mercurochrome
Nasal Spray
Skin cream
Sphygmomanometers
Thermometers
Thimerosal-containing Vaccines
Other Medical Commercial Products
Tilt switches
Air flow/fan limit control
Building security systems
Chest freezer lids
Fire alarm box switches
Laptop computer screen shutoffs
Pressure controls
Silent light switches
Temperature control:
(Incubator/water bath thermometers)
Maximum/minimum thermometers
National Institute of Standards and Technology calibration thermometers
Tapered bulb thermometers
Devices utilizing a printed wire board (e.g., laptop computers)
Energy Production (coal-fired)
Flow meters
Generators
Sequential Multi-Channel Autoanalyzers
Speedometer Systems
Sphygmomanometers
Pressure Gauges: (Barometers
Manometers, Vacuum gauges)
Reed relays
Plunger or displacement relays
DC watt hour meters (Duncan)
Computer monitors
Lead Analyzer electrodes
Cathode-ray oscilloscopes
"Crough said that the district would retain the gold but, while it could subsidize some of the costs, it would still not pay for the estimated $6 million needed over the life of the project. "
Why is the district retaining the gold? Any gold should be used to reimburse taxpayer $$, instead of sitting with the district at their discretion...
There must be an error in those numbers if the amount of gold removed will not be enough to finance the $6 million project:
2.4 g/ton x 200,000 tons / 31.1 g/troy oz x $900/troy oz = $13.89 million
Even at half the rate testing showed, there should be plenty to cover the entire job.
What are the levels (ppm) in our local waterways?
Answers.com - "Minimata disease was identified in Japan in 1956 as a result of acute mercury poisoning resulting from the ingestion of fish contaminated with mercury. Hundreds of people were discovered to have levels greater than 50 ppm of mercury in their hair, the level at which people are likely to experience nerve damage. The highest result recorded was that of a lady from Goshonoura island who had 920 ppm in her sample.
"Minamata disease is a poisoning disease that affects mainly the central nervous system and is caused by the consumption of large quantities of fish and shellfish living in Minamata Bay and its surroundings, the major causative agent being some sort of organic mercury compound."
non-symptomatic Minamata residents the level was 191 ppm. This compared to an average level of 4 ppm for people living outside the Minamata area.
fotajoye - "Cinnabar deposits will be chemically and biologically altered so as to release mercury into soil, water, and air. Erupting volcanoes on land and in the sea will also release mercury into the environment." Blackgsd
Which one of you is correct?
i have messed with mercuy /lead and if you are lukckey you only lose youe teehs. if you get to much vaper in your head you get lead posine whitch give you a slow death long turm .i pourd lead for bullets and got / same as murcury /whem i burned it off you still get the smoke . and you do not know it.but i got lotts of gold /bullets . if you do any of this get out in a lott of air going the other way.sorry
for any miss spelling to much mercuy/lead/long turm
I am one of the co-inventors of the mercury recovery process. I wish to point out a typo of misunderstanding in the original article. Assays have shown that the mercury concentration is 2.4 to 3 g/t. Gold is negligible and will certainly not average more than 0.1g/t.
They just took away California's citizens rights to gold dredge based on the claim that dredging is causing harm to the salmon population and now they want to implement a full scale dredging op for mercury. BS. I don't buy it. This is about the gold. California just used the salmon excuse so they could stop the people from profiting so they could get the gold themselves. Typical political BS. Miss-direction. The state will buy into this. Fish and Game will not make a peep of resistance and the state will reap the profits.