By Barbara Cone
Why is nobody sounding the alarm? The raging Tamarack Fire is quickly approaching the Leviathan Mine Toxic Superfund Site. As of writing the fire is within 1 mile of the EPA toxic site. In the foothills above Holbrook Junction sits the open pit mine. It was described in the Reno Gazette-Journal as “a toxic stew of acid and dissolved heavy metals [that have]collected at the 250-acre site for half a century and polluted streams in the upper Carson River basin.” “making the Superfund list of the country’s most polluted sites”.
The EPA says. “the high sulfur content in the waste rocks and fractures turns snow melt, rain and groundwater into sulfuric acid, which leaches contaminants from the native minerals such as arsenic, copper, nickel, zinc, chromium along with aluminum and iron. This acid mine drainage then flows into the creek system at a number of points, devastating aquatic life until the creeks join the East Fork of the Carson River, a much larger flow.
The bioreactor systems, the pond liners, the toxic heavy metals, and all of the other materials at the site are on the edge of conflagration, or maybe it has already begun? The burning contaminants will rise into the air, and rain down across the State of Nevada. Why is nobody sounding the alarm!
