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WEIMAR, Ca. -- David
Stam didn't mean to eavesdrop, but he
couldn't help but overhear his three
children talking about the "hole in the
ground" they had discovered last spring
near the family's property in Weimar,
about 38 miles northeast of Sacramento
near Colfax. He was absolutely right to
be alarmed.
"We had the property
cleared and the kids were running around
playing," Stam recalled. "I asked them,
"What's this hole you're talking about?'
Once I saw it, I told them, 'If you ever
want to see the outside of the house
again, stay away from that hole.' "
The "hole" discovered
by Stam's twin 10-year-olds, Danielle
and Gabrielle, and 13-year-old son Kyler,
is 5 1/2 feet in diameter and at least
32 feet deep. It is probably a test
shaft, one of the many thousands of
potentially hazardous legacies of mining
in California.
"We were lucky," said
Kim Hughes, Stam's wife. "We moved here
five years ago when the kids were very
small. They or one of their friends or
one of the dogs could have fallen in."
A recent report
following a nearly three-year study by
the California Department of
Conservation concludes that there are at
least 39,000 abandoned mine sites in the
state. Prior to this report, the number
of abandoned mines reported in
California was based solely on old
databases and ranged from a low of 7,000
to a high of 20,000.
Of the 39,000
abandoned mines, approximately 32,760
(84 percent) present physical safety
hazards, many with several openings such
as the one on Stam's property that pose
a threat to humans and wildlife. Other
physical hazards include unstable
highwalls or structures such as mine
buildings that could collapse at a
touch; dark, twisting tunnels in which
an explorer could become hopelessly
lost; and disease-carrying, predatory or
poisonous animals which sometimes make
old mines their homes.
On November 30, a
deer was discovered 15 feet down an
abandoned mine shaft in Mokelumne Hill.
The landowner had no idea the shaft
existed on the property. The buck,
nicknamed "Lucky" by local children, was
pulled to safety after several hours and
released. Fortunately for Stam, the
Department of Conservation contracted
with Foam Concepts Inc. of Aurora,
Minn., to permanently close the hole on
his property as a demonstration of what
can be done with some hazardous
openings. The foam sealant requires no
equipment, no power source, can be
backpacked into remote areas and is
environmentally friendly.
"I wanted that hole
sealed up for my kids' safety," Stam
said. "It's a big hazard. Kids will be
kids."
The DOC study states
that approximately 4,300 (11 percent) of
California's abandoned mine sites
present environmental hazards. There are
acute environmental hazards such as old
explosives, drums of chemicals or direct
exposure to toxic mine tailings. There
are also subtle hazards inside of a mine
--
poisonous gases or
low oxygen levels. More often, there are
chronic environmental hazards.
Contaminated runoff from abandoned mines
affects land, groundwater, streams,
rivers and lakes in many areas
throughout the state. Water can carry
heavy metals associated with acid-rock
drainage, mercury from placer gold
processing, mercury from mercury mines,
arsenic, asbestos and chromium.
Windblown dust containing contaminants
such as chromium and asbestos also is a
concern.
"The mining industry
today is high tech and generally
environmentally conscious," DOC Director
Darryl Young said. "But the historic
mining industry that helped build this
state developed in a time of
less-sophisticated mining methods and
before environmental regulations. Since
most of these sites date back to the
19th century, the individuals or
companies responsible for the problems
are no longer present to assist with
remediation and reclamation.
"Additionally, there
isn't a statewide clearinghouse for
information or a coordinated statewide
effort to address abandoned mine lands.
But the danger of abandoned mines is
becoming more evident as the population
grows in high-density abandoned mine
areas such as the Sierra Nevada
foothills."
Another example of
the danger is ongoing near Grass Valley,
where a Bay Area family's dream home,
built over a mine shaft that had been
covered with topsoil, had to be
condemned after the ground collapsed
under it.
Approximately 50
percent of the abandoned mines are on
private lands, while 48 percent are on
federal lands and 1.5 percent on state
lands. The report recommends field
visits to assess the physical hazards of
each site. It states: "A mine site may
be represented by one five foot shaft,
presenting only a safety hazard; or a
site may include 42 shafts, three waste
piles, two tailings dams and a
processing area, all encompassing in
excess of 200 acres and presenting both
safety and environmental hazards."
With a limited staff,
DOC's Office of Mine
Reclamation/Abandoned Mine Lands Unit
worked from September 1997 to June of
2000 to produce the statewide inventory
and report. Staff collected and entered
data for 790 mine sites and 3,980
features in 21/2 years. Thus, while
confident in its extrapolated figures,
the report points out that only 1.5
percent of the state's sites and
features have been located and recorded
using modern methods.
The report --
entitled "California's Abandoned Mines:
A Report on the Magnitude and Scope of
the Issue in the State" -- was mandated
by and has been given to the
Legislature. It concludes, "in general,
the existing authorities and funding
mechanisms are inadequate to address
this huge statewide issue."
The
abandoned mines report can be accessed
here.
DOC's Office of Mine
Reclamation urges citizens who come
across a suspected abandoned mine to
call its toll-free number,
1-877-OLD-MINE (653-6463). That's how
DOC learned of Stam's problem.
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