MCDERMITT - Representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be in McDermitt on Feb. 19-21 to meet with individual property owners to discuss the cleanup work to be performed on their property.
Both the EPA and Nevada Division of Environmental Protection are planning to conduct cleanup activities to address mercury and arsenic contamination present in calcine material that has been used as fill throughout areas of McDermitt.
The cleanup work will occur at no cost to the property owner. Property owners can decline to participate in the program. However, this will be the only chance to have the material removed at no cost to the property owner.
In order to participate in the program, property owners will have to sign an access agreement, which gives their permission for the EPA to access their property and conduct the cleanup work.
The work will include removal of calcine material from residential properties in town and from one residiential property on the Fort McDermitt Reservation. The material will be replaced with suitable, clean fill.
The EPA also will place clean fill material over the large parking area adjacent to the football field at McDermitt Combined School. The work will be conducted this spring and take four to six weeks to complete.
The EPA recently sent letters to owners of property where the EPA believes calcines are present. Any property owner interested in participating in the cleanup program can schedule a time to meet with EPA officials. EPA and NDEP officials will be available during the days and evenings on Feb. 19, 20 and 21. Call Tom Dunkelman at (775) 721-4712 to schedule a time to meet.
EPA researchers previously detected elevated levels of both metals from reddish soils around several McDermitt-area roads, as well as the playground and parking lot at the school. Officials subsequently sought residents' permission to sample yards for the presence of calcine soils from the nearby Opalite Mining District.
Aside from the defunct Cordero Mine, the district is home to the inactive McDermitt Mine, which produced more mercury than any other mine in the country during its brief lifespan.
Officials emphasized earlier this year that the arsenic and mercury levels they'd found to date do not pose a short-term health risk to the community.
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