WINNEMUCCA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be hosting a public meeting this Tuesday, Oct. 23, to bring McDermitt residents up to date on its studies of arsenic and mercury levels in area soils.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the McDermitt Combined School gymnasium.
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.
The EPA believes that waste from the district may have been used as fill material at various sites around the border community.
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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