Toxic overflow from the historic Lead Queen mine in the Patagonia Mountains drains towards Harshaw Creek.
The Coronado National Forest, Sierra Vista Ranger District hosted a community meeting in Patagonia, Arizona on April 28. The Lead Queen Mine cleanup plan was by presented by Floyd Gray of United States Geological Survey (USGS), and Eli Curiel of the Forest Service.
The Lead Queen was an underground mine for lead, silver, zinc, copper and gold that started in 1898 and was abandoned after 1940. After heavy rains in September 2014, members of PARA discovered and reported the leaking mine site, located approximately 6 miles south of Patagonia, Arizona. In December, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality served the Forest Service with two notices of violation for the toxic mine spill. The Forest Service issued a “Time Critical Removal Action Approval Memorandum” in February to mitigate the spill and its potential threats to public health and welfare, water and wildlife. Clean up was scheduled to start Spring 2015, before monsoon rains could potentially wash contamination further downstream.
Floyd Gray gave an overview of his findings from sampling and testing the water, soil, and waste rock around the abandoned mine site. It was also deduced that there is more than one source of leakage from the mine site. One source was identified by its extreme concentration of iron while the other source is high in aluminum. All of the tested samples came back with very high levels of contamination from hazardous heavy metals such as arsenic and lead. In one water sample, the heavy metal levels were 20 times higher than the allowable drinking water standards. It was also determined that the mine contamination traveled 9/10th of a mile downstream.
The studies at the Lead Queen site to determine all of the sources of contamination has lead to a larger, ongoing study of the watersheds in the Patagonia Mountains by USGS and the Forest Service.
Eli Curiel detailed the plans to plug the six abandoned tunnels and shafts of the Lead Queen mine site with polyurethane foam. The waste rock piles laced with toxic heavy metals will be consolidated into a new location above the watershed and capped with clean fill to prevent future contamination. The polluted sediment in the waterway will be removed with the aid of a series of eleven gabion walls across the drainage filled with zeolite to capture and hold the heavy metals. The clean up area comprises five acres on the Coronado National Forest in the Patagonia Mountains. The mine site will require ongoing monitoring and maintenance, essentially forever.
The cost to taxpayers has not yet been determined. The clean up project has not yet gone out to bid. It’s expected to take up to 120 days with work possibly starting this summer.
More information can be obtained from the Forest Service Project On-Scene Coordinator, Eli Curiel at 520-388-8413.
Regal Resources Sunnyside Mine Exploration
Mexican Spotted Owl ©Gooch Goodwin
At the public meeting, an update was given on Regal Resources’ Sunnyside mining exploration project in the Patagonia Mountains by Forest Service Geologist Mindy Vogel. Conspicuously absent from Vogel’s overview was the ongoing litigation between Defenders of Wildlife and PARA against the Forest Service and US Fish and Wildlife for the unlawful approval of this project.
For the present time, no work is allowed at the Sunnyside site between March 1 and Oct 1, 2015 because of nesting Mexican spotted owls and Yellow-billed cuckoos in the area, according to the Forest Service Decision Memo.
No questions were permitted during any of the presentations. Audience members were required to seek out Forest Service and USGS personnel after all presentations were complete to ask questions. It is a format that we find effectively prevents members of the community from getting all of their questions answered and learning the most information possible.
Wildcat Silver Hermosa Proposal
Forest Service geologist Margie DeRose gave an overview and an update of the expected timeline of the AZ Mining Inc (aka Wildcat Silver, AMI) Hermosa mining exploration proposal in the Patagonia Mountains on the Coronado National Forest. The final Environmental Assessment and draft decision is estimated for release in October 2015 – over a year past the original timeline. A 45 day public objection period will follow.
Meanwhile, AZ Mining Inc / Wildcat Silver board chairman Richard Warke is privately funding more mine exploration drilling on their privately owned land. AZ Mining Inc / Wildcat Silver is now claiming that deposits for lead, zinc and silver exist for an additional mine at the Hermosa project, referred to as Hermosa North West.
