SFUND RECORDS CTR 2162820 ^^..eosr,,^^ S ^^M^V^ -Z. UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY % ^SM- " REGION IX \^"*^NOw ^ 75 Hawthorne Street ^^PRo^^^ San Francisco, CA 94105 MEMORANDUM 'JUL 1 1 2008 SUBJECT: Request for a Time-Critical Removal Action at Goldome Mill, Mojave National Preserve, San Bernardino County, California FROM: Craig Benson, On-Scene Coordinator Ertiergency Response Section (SFD-9-2) TO: Daniel Meer, Chief Response, Planning & Assessment Branch (SFD-9) THROUGH: Steve Calanog, Acting Chief ^'^^^^ Emergency Response Section (SFD-9-2) I. PURPOSE The purpose of this Action Memorandum is to obtain approval to spend up to $264,000.00 in direct costs to mitigate threats to human health and the environment posed by uncontrolled hazardous substances (cyanide, ignitable materials, corrosive liquids and solids and metal bearing wastes) present at the Goldome Mill (the "Site"). The Site is located near Ivanpah Road, approximately nine miles west of the Nevada/California state line, in San Bernardino County, California. The proposed removal of hazardous substances would be taken pursuant to Section 104(a)(1) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. § 9604(a)(1), and Section 300.415 of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan ("NCP"), 40 C.F.R. § 300.415. II. SITE CONDITIONS AND BACKGROUND Site Status: Non-NPL Category of Removal: Time-Critical CERCLIS ID: assignment pending AM approval SITE ID: assignment pending AM approval A, Site Description 1. Physical location The 40-acre Site is situated on patented private land within the Mojave National Preserve on the western slope of the New York Mountains located on the eastern edge of the Ivanpah Valley. The Site is accessed from an unnamed and unpaved road branching north from Ivanpah Road, approximately twelve miles south of the intersection of Ivanpah Road and Nipton Road in eastern San Bernardino County, California. The San Bernardino County Assessor (SBCA) Parcel Number is 0569-201- 06-0000, known as Heavy Metals Millsites Nos. 1 - 8, designated as Mineral Survey No. 6785, embracing a portion of Section 4 of Township 14 North, Range 16 East, San Bernardino Meridian in the County of San Bernardino, State of California. The coordinates of the Site are N 35° 19' 45.26", W 115° 15' 45.28". See Figure 1 for a Site Location Map. The boundaries of the 40 acre Site are irregular and some abandoned wastes and equipment may be located on adjoining patented mine claims under different ownership. The northwesterly Site tailings pond may also be partially located on ^ National Park Service (NPS) property. NFS Environmental Protection Specialist Dave Burdett provided OSC Benson with an overlay produced by NPS GIS specialists using data from a survey-grade GPS unit at mining monuments located at the corners of the claims. See Figure 2 for the NPS Overlay. Private Property #1 depicted in Figure 2 is a revised boundary depiction of the Site as shown in Figure 1 (APN 0569-201-06). The overlay that is labeled as Private Property #2 consists of two parcels (APN 0569-201-03 and -04 in Figure 1) that are currently owned by Leland Reeder of Beverly Hills, California. 2. Site characteristics The Site houses an inoperable hard rock precious metals processing and extraction facility that processed ore from area mines. The Site consists of two main structures, the laboratory/refinery building and mill building, as well as an ore crushing/conveying circuit and screening plant which fed the mill. Also present at the Site are numerous above ground storage tanks (ASTs), tailings ponds, sheds, drums and other containers, abandoned vehicles, debris and other unit processes associated with extraction and tailings processing. See Figure 3 for a Site Map. The exact periods of operation and termination of ore processing activities on- Site are not clear. On June 26, 2008, EPA Civil Investigator John Jaros met on-site with a local area resident who stated that the last time the mill was operated may have been around 1992. Currently, there is a dispute between National Gold, Inc. and Unicorp Financial Corporation as to who legally holds title to the real property that comprises the Site. The Site is unfenced and accessible to the public from all approaches. 3. Removal site evaluation The Site was referred to EPA by the San Bernardino County Fire Department (SBCoFD) Hazardous Materials Division. On May 28, 2008, OSCs Craig Benson and Jason Musante participated in a walk-through inspection with SBCoFD Hazardous Materials Specialist Greg Zeigler and NPS Specialist Burdette. The team found no fencing or attempt at stopping unknowing or unauthorized entry to the buildings or property. A shed and a multi-modal storage container were found open and in a rundown condition. The approximate 30,000 square foot 2- story mill building contained dozens of scattered drums and smaller containers of abandoned wastes, several ASTs, a conveyance system leading to an 8 x12 foot ball mill, three banks of six flotation cells, remnants of filter presses and other unidentified unit processes and heavily vandalized mechanical, electrical and control rooms and equipment. Some drums and containers bore marks and/or labels indicating various acids, flammable materials, caustics and other reagent chemicals. The team also discovered newer drums and containers of wastes in the mill building that were not present on the Site during a previous SBCoFD inspection in October 2007. These included containers of hydrochloric acid, iodine solution, acetone, nitric acid, and drums with unknown contents. A heating element with a 5- gallon propane cylinder connectPon and other equipment in proximity to the new hydrochloric acid and iodine containers suggests possible use in illicit drug manufacturing. Numerous drums and containers were found staged in outside areas and in a multi-modal container near the mill building. Some were labeled as containing hydrochloric acid, flammable liquids, oil and sodium cyanide. An open cyanide labeled drum inside the multi-modal container was confirmed to contain an elevated cyanide concentration from a past SBCoFD sampling and analysis event. Several newer and unmarked full poly 55-gallons drums with unknown contents were also located. A tank farm with four approximately 30,000 gallon ASTs and associated clarifiers and other unidentified process vessels is located outside along the western side of the mill building. An inspection from the elevated cat walk suggests that these tanks are generally empty or contain only a small residual from former processing operations. The laboratory/refinery building generally contained only debris and broken equipment. Transformer carcasses were observed adjacent to the laboratory building and the soil around and down gradient of the transformers appeared stained. These transformers had apparently been vandalized for copper/nrietal theft and left empty of their sides. Piles of what appeared to be activated charcoal, lime and a burn pit/pile exist approximately 400 feet east of the mill building in the area of the ore feeder bin. Drums filled with rock and drums of unidentified solid material are also present in this area. Approximately 1,000 feet north of the mill building is a bone yard of broken down equipment, automobiles and scrap piles. Over twenty 55-gallon drums and over one hundred and fifty 5-gallon buckets of tar like resin solutions were also located. Marks on many of these drums indicated the resin solution had a flash point between 73 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. All of these drums and buckets were in extremely poor condition and many were actively leaking their contents to the ground. In the past, power to the mill was provided by a private power supply line which is no longer in use, although evidence of the old power line/poles can be seen from the Site. The entire Site appeared abandoned and process equipment was aged, rusted and inoperable. Doors to all buildings, and storage areas were either open or non-existent and vandalism and trespass was evident throughout the property. Based on the presence of abandoned hazardous substances and wastes and observed Site conditions, SBCoFD Specialist Zeigler submitted a formal Request for Federal Action to OSC Benson. OSC Benson agreed to return to the Site to conduct a more thorough removal site assessment. EPA received a verbal license for access from Jim Barrus, the CEO of National Gold, Inc., and OSCs Benson and Musante returned to the Site on June 5, 2008 with members of the Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) contractor. Also present was Deputy Ryan Smith of the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Office (SBCoSO). Deputy Smith was requested to accompany the team for security purposes and to be familiarized with the Site. The SBCoSO maintains law enforcement jurisdiction for private mill and mine sites within the Mojave National Preserve. Deputy Smith confirmed that the Sheriffs Narcotics Division had visited the Site the previous day and were unable to locate an actual drug lab in the surrounding area. The suspected drug |ab reagents and equipment were left on-site to be handled by EPA. The START implemented an approved Emergency Response Quality Assurance Sampling Plan and collected 17 samples from select containers, stained soil areas, waste piles and tailings. The samples were submitted to an approved off- site laboratory for EPA-approved analysis of select Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste characteristic constituents/properties. Limited field chemistry testing verified the presence of corrosive and cyanide bearing wastes in decayed and compromised non-bulk containers. A draft inventory of encountered drums, containers, and transformer carcasses is included as Appendix 1. This draft inventory does not include larger tanks at the Site or possible soil contamination associated with tailings and spill areas.