Sulphur Bank Mine - Cleanup Plans and Costs

Cleanup Plans and Costs

In 2005, the EPA placed a lien on 554 acres (2.24 km2) of Bradley-owned property at the mine site to recover cleanup costs estimated at $27 million. Cost estimates for future cleanup go as high as $40 million. Another $1.7 million was agreed upon in a settlement between the EPA and NEC Acquisition Company, the parent company of Earth Energy,Inc., for the costs of re-closing three geothermal wells at Sulphur Bank. The wells were drilled in the 1960s to explore the possibility of geothermal energy production, but of the three test wells at Sulphur Bank, only one was productive and the project was abandoned in the 1980s.

Rick Sugarek, project manager for the Superfund site told the Lake County News in 2009 that the EPA has been working with the state on a cleanup plan, but a main sticking point has been the need to run a treatment plant to deal with the water in the Herman Pit. "We need to stop that flow, and that's why we need the treatment plant. " The question then is where should the water from the pit be discharged? There is no good answer to that, he said. "One of the options was piping the water to The Geysers for injection." Sugarek added, " there are legal and technical problems with that plan." The total cost estimates to build a treatment plant and remove all of the mine waste could run between $30 million and $40 million. The Geysers are already receiving treated wastewater from both Lake County and Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County.

A review paper dated Fall 2008 on the Sulphur Bank Mine site remediation, authored by J. Lessl, University of Florida, Department of Soil and Water Sciences suggests phytoremediation, which is the use of both wild and genetically-modified plants to take up (hyper-accumulate) and bank the mercury and arsenic in the plant tissue. The plants have been genetically altered for this specific purpose. The report also suggests the less expensive option of adding soil amendments like compost, lime and fertilizer. "This technology relies on the intrinsic ability of organic matter to bind metals, reducing their bioavailability and subsequently allowing vegetation to become established" which would ideally, "impede the spread of water erosion and reduce water ingress and subsequent metal leaching." The suggestions in the review paper are based on several studies, two of which are; Remediation of metal polluted mine soil with compost: Co-composting versus incorporation by Susan Tandy, 2008, and Phytoremediation of toxic elemental and organic pollutants by Richard B. Meager, 2000.