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News Round-Up

EBMUD BALKS AT CLEAN UP TAB

The East Bay Municipal Utility District has rejected a federal order to clean up the abandoned Penn Mine in the Sierra foothills.

EBMUD owns a portion of the former copper mine, which closed in 1954. Acidic water from the mine, containing cadmium and other metals, has sometimes spilled over containment barriers into nearby Comanche Reservoir. EPA says that EBMUD is liable for the clean up costs, but the utility district, fearing that the bill could run between $20 and $50 million, is refusing to sign a consent order.

"It's a matter of who's going to be responsible. We're not willing to sign a consent order that locks in our rate payers for the full cost," says EBMUD board member Stuart Flashman. The mine's original owners long ago went bankrupt. The district contends that the U.S. Commerce Department, which ran the mine during World War II, should at least share the liability.

Flashman says that EBMUD has already spent $700,000 to construct a continuous in-line treatment system and diversion trenches around the mine. But a full clean up would involve much more, including hauling contaminated debris to a safe disposal site and capping the mine.

EPA contends that EBMUD became responsible when it bought the site and constructed Comanche Reservoir in the 1960s. "They had full knowledge of the problems and chose to proceed," says EPA's Alexis Strauss.

Both sides agree that Penn Mine must be cleaned up. While they negotiate, EBMUD is suing the Commerce Dept. to force the federal agency to pay its share of current and future clean up costs. Contact: (510)287-0141

TERNS FUTURE UNCERTAIN

The Navy might change its flight schedule to avoid disturbing a nine-inch-long endangered bird, but would a developer or private landowner be as environmentally responsible? With closure of the Alameda Naval Air Station imminent, the secluded, off-limits and therefore undisturbed runway habitat of 115 pairs of California least terns is up for grabs. How to grandfather costly protection of the tern colony into any development plan, and make sure Alameda's future waterfront complements restoration goals for the Estuary, are two big questions that should be considered by the new East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment Commission, according to director Bill Tuohy. Though the commission's environmental committee is preoccupied with base clean up issues at the moment, Tuohy hopes activists will bring broader issues to the table at upcoming meetings. Contact: (510)834-6928

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