BLM CERCLA EXPERIENCE IN ABANDONED MINE SITES

• Jurisdiction: United States

Cleaning up the Public Domain: The Next Frontier
(Mar 1996)
CHAPTER 1C
BLM CERCLA EXPERIENCE IN ABANDONED MINE SITES
Karl L. Ford, Ph.D.
Bureau of Land Management National Applied Resource Sciences Center
Denver, Colorado

-Overview of BLM Mining Sites under CERCLA

-Lessons Learned in Site Characterization and Risk Assessment

-CERCLA Cleanup Approaches

-Cost-Effective Approaches in a Bear Market

[Page 1C-2]

Overview of BLM Mining Sites under CERCLA

— Problems of Multiple Ownership and PRPs

— Significance of Millsites

— 100 Mining sites on Federal Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket Sites; Preliminary Assessments, Site Inspections

[Page 1C-3]

— RI/FS/RD: Atlas, Tar, Triumph, Bunker Hill, (Kaaba)

— NRDA: Lower Coeur d'Alene River, Clark Fork, Iron Mtn.

— NCP Removals

-Emergency Response: mostly explosives, mining chemicals

-Non-time Critical Removals: mostly cyanide ponds, tailings

— Other approaches: 3809, CWA+stormwater

[Page 1C-4]

Lessons Learned in Site Characterization and Risk Assessment

-Importance of Receptors

-Surface water releases, ARD, AWQC

-Acidic tailings do acid-base accounting analysis

-Use...