DeFazio views Superfund site, Formosa Mine

The News Review
By Betsy Swanback
April 18, 2014

RIDDLE — Polluted water gushed from the Formosa Mine as Rep. Peter DeFazio toured it Thursday afternoon in the rain.

The acidic water washes from the mine, 10 miles south of Riddle on Silver Butte, into the South Fork of Middle Creek. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers the mine to be one of the most contaminated sites in America.

The EPA, working in tandem with the Bureau of Land Management, estimates cleaning up the site will cost taxpayers at least $14 million.

The mine closed in 1993, and the government has been looking for its former operators. But the companies appear to be defunct and have no assets, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

To prevent future costly cleanups for taxpayers, DeFazio, D-Springfield, said he will introduce legislation to require mining companies to pay increased royalties, with the proceeds set aside to close mines.

We can’t allow (toxic spillovers) to keep happening.

Chris Cora, EPA project manager on the Formosa Mine

In the case of the Formosa Mine, the companies were bonded for $900,000. State and federal agencies already have spent $3 million trying to contain the pollution.

Under DeFazio’s proposal, which would amend the 1872 Mining Act, companies would pay a 4 percent royalty on existing mines. Mines making less than $100,000 a year would be exempted.

National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich told The Associated Press that current bonding requirements were adequate. While mining companies would be willing to talk about a modest royalty to the government on net revenue, the 8 percent royalty on gross revenues for new mines that DeFazio has talked about would kill new investment, Popovich said.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, four federal agencies spent at least $2.6 billion between 1997 and 2008 to reclaim abandoned mines on federal, state, private and Indian land.

The Formosa Mine yielded copper and zinc from 1910 to 1937. Formosa Exploration and its Canadian parent, Formosa Resources, reopened the mine in 1989 and ceased operations in 1993.

In 1997, the drainage control system left behind by the mining company failed, and toxic water began draining into the creek.

At least 13 miles of fish habitat were damaged and no longer able to support once thriving runs of coastal steelhead trout and Oregon coastal coho salmon, according to a staff report from the U.S. Natural Resources Committee.

The water in some places downstream is more acidic than vinegar, EPA project manager Chris Cora said. “We can’t allow that to keep happening.”

The BLM and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality spent years trying to clean up the mine before the EPA took over in 2007 and declared the mine a Superfund site.

The EPA and BLM each have plans to stem the flow of hazardous minerals.

The EPA intends to build a repository to stash about 240,000 cubic yards of hazardous materials, though the project is at least three years away, Cora said.

“We want to isolate this material and keep it away from water,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BLM plans to cap the polluted water running from the site. The agency hopes to start work by the fall of 2015.

The goal will be to make South Creek inhabitable for fish, Cora said.

The acidity kills bugs the fish eat and their eggs can’t survive in the stream, he said.

The site was well taken care of after the first mining operation closed in 1937, Cora said.

DeFazio said the Mining Act needs to be revised to ensure mining companies are paying for the resource.

“It’s still a free for all. Let’s look at this as a limited resource,” he said.