ENVIRONMENT
fects on the nervous , digestive and immune systems , and on lungs , kidneys , skin and eyes ” in humans , according to the World Health Organization .
More than 26 million pounds of mercury were used in hard rock and hydraulic mining during the gold rush , and much of it remains in the region ’ s upper watersheds . Mercury is a stubborn little bugger . The neurotoxin , scientists say , will linger in the environment for 10,000 years .
“ THERE WAS A SENSE THAT THIS WAS ( THE SETTLERS ’) LAND . THEY DISREGARDED
THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE … WHO HAD BEEN PROTECTING AND MAINTAINING THE LAND AND THE RESOURCES . THESE NEW IMMIGRANTS CAME IN AND SAW THE RESOURCES AS SOMETHING TO BE USED AND NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU LIVED WITH .”
RICH GORDON Board member , The Sierra Fund
Cleaning a dirty past
The time had finally come to address these lasting implications . In 1975 , the California Legislature passed the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act to curtail the environmental harm caused by the industry . The Sierra Fund worked with then-Gov . Jerry Brown to pass two bills in 2016 reforming the SMARA . Brown had signed the original bill into law during his first tenure as governor , but “ it ’ s not been enforced , and it ’ s like 30 years later , and he ’ s just livid , and he ’ s like , ‘ We ’ re reforming this thing from top to bottom ,’” Martin says .
Martin had joined The Sierra Fund in 2003 , two years after its launch , with a mission to “ restore ecosystem resiliency and build community capacity .” In 2004 , as an outgrowth of the nonprofit ’ s advocacy , the Legislature established the Sierra Nevada Conservancy . Headquartered in Auburn , SNC covers 22 counties ( it does not service the Tahoe basin , which has its own California Tahoe Conservancy , established in 1985 ) and is divided into six subregions with staff in each area involved in more than 30 collaboratives . “ In that way , those members of our team really are able to sort of live and breathe , if you will , the work , the needs , the issues and the opportunities that are locally based ,” says Executive Officer Angela Avery .
By mandate , SNC focuses on issues including land conservation and restoration , water and air quality , wildfire risk , economic development , and recreation and tourism . The funding-based agency partners with other government agencies , private-sector companies and nonprofits to address shared goals . It is this coordinated and collaborative approach that has proven effective at tackling the Sierra Nevada ’ s complex , interconnected challenges , Avery says . In other words , as Martin describes it , these are not “ random acts of conservation .”
One example of this collaborative approach is the $ 8 million water-quality cleanup of Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park in Nevada County , “ the mother of all hydraulic mines ,” Martin says . A 2-mile-by-1-mile mine pit discharges mercury-laden sediment , concentrating in water bodies downstream , specifically the Yuba River . The Sierra Fund began working on the project in 2011 with a grant from SNC , and later Patagonia ,
Teichert Foundation and Department of Water Resources funded project research . The Sierra Fund handles the water assessment and maintains the gauge that measures discharge at the site every 15 minutes .
Many old mines are problematic because they contain toxic waste materials that run off and collect in reservoirs , harming water quality , accumulating in fish and entering the food chain . Not insignificantly , they also impact water storage capacity . California ’ s nearly 1,500 reservoirs have lost an estimated 1.7 million acre-feet of storage to sediment , according to a 2009 report . “ The state keeps talking about , ‘ Oh , we need more dams , we need to build more dams to hold water ,’” Martin says . “ Well , that ’ s great . ‘ My house is really dirty . Forget it . I ’ m not cleaning it . I ’ m just gonna go build myself a new house .’ So we started to say , ‘ Hang on , before we keep building new houses , how about we go and see if we can restore some of this capacity ?’”
California Water Resources Control Board identifies more than 130 reservoirs as mercury impaired . One of those is Combie Reservoir in Meadow Vista in Placer County . In 2018 , Nevada Irrigation District began a pilot project to remove mercury and sediment in the lake , which supplies water for irrigation , drinking , recreation , and hydroelectric power for consumers in Placer and Nevada counties .
The project used a unique suction dredge and centrifuge process to move sediment into a holding tank and separate the clean sediment from the mercury . The removed sediment must be free of mercury and beneficial for other applications , possibly as a road base for construction . “ We had to come up with an innovative way to not only extract the sediment from the reservoir but to monitor and ensure that our systems were not degradating the water quality and the invertebrates and the aquatic systems at the same time ,” says Greg Jones , NID ’ s interim general manager .
The team figured out a cost-effective and environmentally friendly process .
36 comstocksmag . com | May 2021