EPA proposes adding Northern Nevada copper mining site to superfund priority list

CARSON CITY — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated the formal process Thursday to add an abandoned Northern Nevada copper mine to its Superfund National Priority List.

It’s the first step to access federal funds needed to clean up a portion of the Anaconda Mine near Yerington in Lyon County.

The site is one of eight nationwide proposed for inclusion on the list published in the Federal Register.

“We are pleased to see that the site — which remains fully under control — has been recognized and included on the list of proposed national priorities, as it demonstrates that the U.S. EPA acknowledges the site is on track to proceed with corrective action,” Kay Scherer, interim director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said in a statement.

Nevada “cautiously” accepted a Superfund priority listing for the site in late March after months of back-and-forth between Gov. Brian Sandoval and regional EPA Administrator Jared Blumenfeld.

Nevada for years balked at a priority designation, arguing that the EPA’s insistence that the site in the rural agricultural area poses an imminent health hazard was overblown and unfounded.

State and federal regulators eventually agreed progress has been made at the site and that the main area needing cleanup funding involves a relatively small area — about 260 acres — that was owned by the now-bankrupt Arimetco.

Officials estimate $31 million is needed for that cleanup work.

Anaconda Copper purchased the mine in the early 1940s. It was bought in the 1970s by Atlantic Richfield Co., now a subsidiary of BP. Those operations ceased in 1982.

The site encompassing 3,400 acres was sold a few more times over the years and was last owned by Arimetco, which went bankrupt in 1997 and abandoned the mine in 2000.

Residents filed a class-action lawsuit claiming mine owners tried to hide drinking water contamination from mine toxins. They won a $19 million settlement in 2013.

Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3821. Follow @SandraChereb on Twitter.