USDA Blog » an End to Toxic Runoff at Abandoned Mine Thanks to Forest Service Recovery Act Funds

USDA Blog » An End to Toxic Runoff at Abandoned Mine Thanks to Forest Service Recovery Act Funds

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An End to Toxic Runoff at Abandoned Mine Thanks to Sign up for Email Updates Forest Service Recovery Act Funds

Posted by Keith Riggs, Office of Communication, U.S. Forest Service, on April 23, 2012 at 4:31 PM

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Categories · American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) (182) · Climate Change (28) · Conservation (218) · Economic Growth (209) · Education (117) · En Español (30) · Energy (132) · Environment (71) · Food and Nutrition (545) · Food Safety (127) · Food Security (40) · Forestry (284) · International (169) · Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food (103) · Let's Move (157) · People's Garden (94) Where no clean soil was encountered under the waste pile, · Plant and Animal Health (111) removal crew cleaned the site down to within 1/2" of bedrock. · Rural Development (741) USFS photo. · Science (175) For over a century, toxic runoff from the Blue Ledge Mine destroyed aquatic life and fisheries in · Technology and Broadband (72) Joe Creek, a tributary to the world-famous Rogue River in Oregon. · Trade (100) But recently the U.S. Forest Service successfully completed a $15 million cleanup at the abandoned · Uncategorized (107) superfund site in the remote, rugged mountains just south of the Oregon-California border which will significantly improve the fish and wildlife habitat. The Blue Ledge Mine consisted of more than two miles of underground workings on ten levels and Calendar yielded copper, zinc, gold, silver, and lead. April 2012 Miners had dumped over 150,000 tons of sulfides-rich waste rock on the extremely steep mountain M T W T F S S slopes. These waste rock piles became the source of highly toxic metal-rich acid mine drainage that, 1 during peak flows in the spring, discharged 500,000 gallons per day into the creek. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Poor access and extremely hazardous conditions presented substantial challenges for the cleanup 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 crew. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

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http://blogs.usda.gov/2012/04/23/an-end-to-toxic-runoff-at-abandoned-mine-thanks-to-forest-service-recovery-act-funds/[4/24/2012 9:47:12 AM] USDA Blog » An End to Toxic Runoff at Abandoned Mine Thanks to Forest Service Recovery Act Funds

Tag Cloud AMS APHIS ARRA ARS Broadband California Conservation DC. Energy Farmers FAS FNS Food Food Safety Forestry FS FSA FSIS Grant HealthierUS School Challenge Kathleen Merrigan KYF2 Let's Move loan Michelle Obama Minnesota National School Lunch Program NRCS Nutrition People's Garden President Obama RD REAP Renewable Energy Rural Development Mulching around plants to help reduce grass competition and better retain soil moisture. USFS Science Science Tuesday SNAP South Dakota Texas photo. Tom Vilsack Trade Tribal USDA The project excavated over 66,500 cubic yards of waste rock from the steep slopes and hauled it to a Washington sealed repository 1.5 miles from the mine. The contractor crew used three spider excavators to climb up the rock piles to remove the waste Archives rock from the top down until the pile could be reached by conventional excavators and dozers. · April 2012 (77) Workers used picks, shovels and brooms to clear waste rock down to bedrock. · March 2012 (115) Five off-highway 35-ton articulated dump trucks hauled over 5,000 loads of waste rock down steep · February 2012 (108) access roads. Helicopters ferried a mini excavator, 30,000 lbs of reclamation materials, and 20,000 · January 2012 (71) pounds of steel for bat gates that were custom built at the mine’s openings. · December 2011 (81) Reclamation efforts included distributing clean topsoil on slopes, planting 10,000 native shrubs and · November 2011 (103) trees, lining of drainage channel banks, installing slope stabilization mesh, and placing native grass seed and mulch on 20 acres of disturbed ground. · October 2011 (99) · September 2011 (112) See more photos on the Forest Service site. · August 2011 (124) · July 2011 (109) · June 2011 (127) · May 2011 (128) · April 2011 (101) · March 2011 (88) · February 2011 (90) · January 2011 (68) · December 2010 (77) · November 2010 (87) · October 2010 (99) · September 2010 (100) · August 2010 (91) · July 2010 (69) · June 2010 (81)

Cleaning waste rock out of the old channel on waste pile. USFS photo. · May 2010 (63) · April 2010 (55) · March 2010 (43) Tags: California, Forestry, FS, mine, Oregon, water Forestry · February 2010 (21) · January 2010 (49) Leave a Reply · December 2009 (27) Name (required) · November 2009 (30) · October 2009 (23) Mail (will not be published) (required) · September 2009 (19) · August 2009 (21) · July 2009 (26) · June 2009 (4)

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http://blogs.usda.gov/2012/04/23/an-end-to-toxic-runoff-at-abandoned-mine-thanks-to-forest-service-recovery-act-funds/[4/24/2012 9:47:12 AM]