NAPA COUNTY — Tuleyome, an organization currently spearheading an effort proposing the establishment of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area (BSM NCA), was recently awarded a $1.4 million grant by the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).
The grant will be used to clean up three abandoned mercury/nickel mines in the upper Putah Creek watershed during the next three years.
“We are very excited by this,” Tuleyome Executive Director Sara Husby-Good said. “It is a testament to the hard work that our Senior Policy Director Bob Schneider has done in this field. He has assembled an accomplished and talented team to make this happen. We are particularly pleased that this effort so closely aligns with our mission to protect our “Deep Home Place.” (Husby-Good said that “Deep Home Place” is the meaning of the Indian word Tuleyome.)
“There is a role for non-profits in the effort to restore abandon mines in our region,” Schneider said. “We can bring attention and focus working with public officials and agencies to prioritize this need.”
According to Husby-Good, the landowner originally purchased the property in order to donate it to the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District as she said it is a key piece in Napa County”s trail system plan. However, the district found that it could not accept the property with the current mercury contamination. She said this project is designed to clean it up.
“We are really pleased with this mine clean up project and the great team that Tuleyome has assembled. This project is a win for the environment, the landowner, and Napa County residents,” Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillion said.
The team includes Stephen McCord of McCord Environmental; Greg Reller, Burleson Construction, which according to Husby-Good, completed the work on Turkey-Abbot Run mine and is working at the Sulpher Bank Superfund mine site clean up at Clear Lake; Peter Green, Darell Slotton, Craig Thomsen and Vic Claassen, of UC Davis; Tom Tsukamoto, of TKT Consulting; and, Michael Lozeau, of Lozeau Drury, LLP. Husby-Good said the team will also work closely with an archeologist to restore and protect mine relics.
According to Husby-Good, there are an estimated 40 abandoned mercury mines in both the Putah and Cache Creek watersheds that occur on both public and private lands. She said clean up and restoration of these mine sites is difficult and demands persistence, collaboration, and funding. The Turkey-Abbot Run mine adjacent to Highway 20 on the southern tip of Walker Ridge, she said is one of the best examples of a successful clean-up effort and the Bureau of Land Management intends to award the contract in August to clean up much of the Rathburn-Petray mine on Walker Ridge above Bear Valley.
The Twin Peaks and Corona Mines are located on and immediately adjacent to an abandoned Oat Hill Mine Road easement held by Napa County. The easement abandonment, which occurred about 30 years ago, includes the provision that the county may reestablish the easement at any time for public purposes. The southern eight miles of the Oat Hill Mine Road easement, which was also abandoned in the past, was reestablished in 2007 as a non-motorized hiking, mountain biking and horseback-riding trail. The northern five miles of the Oat Hill Mine Road easement were not opened to public use at that time due to concerns about public health and safety related to the Twin Peaks and Corona mines.
Opening the northern five miles of the Oat Hill Mine Road to public use is one of the priority projects identified in the District”s Master Plan adopted in 2009, Husby-Good said.
For more information contact Bob Schneider at bschneider@tuleyome.org or visit www.tuleyome.org.
