Editorial: Expensive, but Formosa mine must be cleaned up

The Roseburg News Review says Superfund site needs funding for proper toxic clean up

The environmental mess known as the Formosa Mine, located south of Riddle, is one of more than 1,000 Superfund sites in the United States. It achieved that distinction in 2007, 13 years after the mine closed, and, unless funding is identified for cleanup, it may remain a Superfund site for much longer.

The News-Review's DD Bixby reported recently that the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection Agency are working out an agreement of shared financial responsibility for the site. They, however, are skeptical that funds will be available for the cleanup.

While allotting financial responsibilities is important to the agencies, our concern is that the environmental hazards are mitigated.

We applaud the anticipated accord between the two agencies that presumably will lead to that larger goal.

The EPA recounts the Formosa site's copper, zinc and thorium deposits were sufficient to prompt mining operations there as early as 1910. The mill closed for the first time in 1937.

Prior to the mill being reopened by Formosa Exploration Inc. in 1990, nearby Middle Creek was found to be supporting a thriving fishery. That same report says that since the mine closed, annual discharges of about 5 million gallons of acid rock drainage carry dissolved copper and zinc.

Along with “significant concentrations” of arsenic, barium, lead, mercury and nickel, the discharge has severely degraded about 17 miles of Middle Creek fish habitat. The stream was formerly a waterway for steelhead and coho salmon.

This past July the Oregon Department of Human Services found the site poses no risk to the drinking water supply for residents of Riddle, but it would pose a hazard to recreational users who drink water near the mine.

Cleaning this blighted piece of Silver Butte has been estimated to cost $20 million, and just the process leading to a decision on a cleanup plan will cost $2.25 million.

The EPA says the former owners appear to be defunct with no assets.

Funding for the Formosa Mine cleanup will compete for taxpayers dollars along with all of the other Superfund sites. It competes in a climate where the federal budget is challenged by the costs of military campaigns, new domestic initiatives and a very troubled economy.

Meanwhile, the mine continues to spew a toxic brew down Oregon waterways, fouling land and water.

It is a situation that should have never happened and one which will not resolve itself. Action is needed and we urge environmental agencies and our elected representatives to see that resolution to this problem is not overlooked in the crush of competing interests.