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2/12/2025
WT Staff
Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@watertoday.ca
February 12, 2025 1117 am PST
CWA CrimeBox
Environmental Crimes Historic Conviction: Fiscal Year 2015; Case ID# CR_2760(California)
Central Valley gold mine manager imprisoned for Clean Water Act violations, depredation of US property
One of 72 Clean Water Act Criminal Prosecutions in the State of California (from 1989-2023)
The defendant in this case was in a management role at a gold mine in Shasta County, in the upper Central Valley Region 5 watershed in the State of California. Ten years ago this month, the defendant was sentenced to time in prison and ordered to pay more than $100,000 restitution for negligent discharge of a pollutant to water of the United States, and depredation of US property.
During the processing of mined ore to extract the gold, the ore is crushed, water is used to create a slurry, a foaming agent is added to separate the gold from the tailings, resulting in a wastewater stream contaminated with arsenic and lead.
From at least February 2007, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board admonished the mine operators, including the defendant, to obtain a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, as the law requires. The mine did not have a discharge permit, as management claimed to have a closed-loop water treatment system in use, recycling treated effluent back to the gold extraction process. The mine management insisted there was no discharge of contaminants to the environment.
Environmental compliance investigators found the mine's water treatment system under capacity, inadequate for the wastewater stream produced. At times, the treatment system was not working at all. Mine operators had on many occasions dumped untreated industrial wastewater with hazardous levels of arsenic and lead, as the case notes indicate, "into abandoned mines, an improvised leach field, a waste rock area, or on the county road surrounding the mine", much of this being public land of the California Bureau of Land Management (BLM ).
In 2006, a sub-standard assembly of pipe constructed to carry the tailings slurry to an abandoned mine shaft broke, dumping as much as 10 tons of mine tailings into Scorpion Gulch Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River. The spill mobilized arsenic and lead contaminated material seven miles from the mine to Whiskeytown National Recreation Area reservoir.
In addition to the Clean Water Act violations, the mine manager was also charged for "depredation of United States property" related to the improper handling of the mine's waste rock. The waste rock, a source of metal leaching - acid rock drainage, had been used to resurface the county road through BLM land. The waste rock, like tailings, contained high levels of arsenic and lead.
Quoting from the case briefing, "EPA is committed to protecting human health along with our natural resources," said Jay M. Green, Special Agent-in-Charge of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in California. "The defendant not only discharged potentially lethal byproducts from mining operations, he tried to hide it from investigators. Today’s sentence demonstrates that if companies and their managers skirt environmental laws, EPA and its partners will hold them accountable."
Prison term: 6 months; Federal Fines: $2,500; Restitution: $107,160; Probation: 12 months
See related feature article, an interview with Mine Drainage and Reclamation expert Bill Price, "What is acid mine drainage, anyway?"
See last week's CrimeBox here, "Serious risk from the illegal dumping of industrial hazardous materials"
CWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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