CLEARLAKE OAKS ? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting the public to comment on its plan to clean up contaminated mine waste that was used to construct BIA 120, the primary access road to the Elem Indian Colony.
A 30-day public comment period opened Aug. 10 and closes Sept. 9. The public can comment on an environmental document and the EPA”s preferred cleanup plan, which is to rebuild the roadway and to cover shoulders along the entire length of BIA 120.
The EPA would first remove pavement from the roadway. It would place clean material on top of the mine waste, raising portions of the road. This would allow the EPA to meet BIA requirements for the road profile without excavating mine waste beneath the roadway. The EPA would then repave the road and widen the roadway shoulders with clean material in order to prevent exposure to mine waste.
Selection of a final cleanup plan could take place approximately on Sept. 15. The EPA will consider comments from the public when selecting and developing the final cleanup plan. Cleanup could begin by June 2010.
For more information about this project, please contact Rick Sugarek, remedial project manager, at sugarek.richard@epa.gov, call him at (415) 972-3151, or write to him care of the U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency, 75 Hawthorne St., San Francisco, Calif. 94105. Svetlana Zenkin, the community outreach coordinator, can be e-mail at zenkin.svetlana@epa.gov. You can reach her via an EPA hotline at (800) 231-3075 or write to her care of the EPA, 75 Hawthorne St., MC-SFD-6-3, San Francisco, Calif. 94105.
