Carson City Supervisors hear update on mercury contamination, superfund site
Carson City Supervisors heard an update from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday regarding the mercury contamination superfund site along the Carson River.
During the Comstock Lode, a new process was discovered for refining silver and gold ore, known as the Washoe Process which involved 14 million pounds mercury entering more than 130 river miles spanning five counties.
Now, today, the repercussions can still be found all along the valley’s waterways.
The main concern, according to Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, EPA researcher, for Carson City comes from children’s eating dirt while playing in their residential yards within the site, which is around Empire Ranch, and people consuming fish from the river or participating in some traditional tribal practices such as using cattails that could be contaminated.
However, there is no major risk from using recreational, including swimming.
Residential soil samples have been take on a voluntary basis by obtaining permission for sampling from the owner or tenant of a home.
Then, if soil samples prove contamination, a clean-up will be undertaken.
Within the Empire Ranch development, seven houses agreed to be sampled.
Of the seven, none had results exceeded the mercury levels that would trigger a clean up.
However, not all homes were sampled, which could include up to another 20 homes that could potentially be contaminated.
However, Ibrahim said the EPA is not concerned as the results of the houses sampled came out “really, really low.”
Moving forward, the EPA proposes to require soil sampling prior to construction within the area, as well as a proposal to provide education to communicates through signage and outreach about mercury exposure.
Supervisor Stacey Giomi said there is a conflict in the area between FEMA and the EPA.
“If there’s a disaster declaration, then FEMA funds cannot be used to deal with the disaster because of the superfund declaration,” Giomi said.
Ibrahim said they are aware of the issue and are trying to navigate moving forward with FEMA.
Giomi said he doesn’t believe the clean up will ever be finished, and questioned whether it’s even worth it to have the site designated as a superfund.
“This is a very unusual superfund site; it’s massive in area for one, for two there’s no responsible parties, which is one of the key components of a superfund: to get the responsible parties for mitigation,” Giomi said. “Do you think we’re ever going to be out from under this? The reality is, I don’t think that it is possible to ever completely clean this up. Is it worth even having it as a superfund site if there’s never going to be an end to the clean up?”
Supervisor Lisa Schuette said there are things they can do to help mitigate the issues caused by the site, even if a full clean up isn’t possible, such as addressing bank erosion during construction.
“If we want to fix it, we need the tools to do that, and you don’t wait until the problem’s huge to fix it, right? We try to fix it as we go along.”
Or more information, including a map of the sites, please visit https://www.epa.gov/superfund/carsonrivermercury