Four years ago, I was embroiled in a bitter battle with BP ARCO, the BLM, the State of Nevada, and a Lyon County Commissioner over the Yerington Anaconda Copper Mine site. I was then the Tribal Manager for the Yerington Paiute Tribe and I had deep concerns about the mine site and its potential for negative impact upon the lives of Paiutes who lived on the Campbell Ranch Reservation, about three miles to the North and downstream of the mine site.
The mine site had been shuttered for several years following the bankruptcy of the then operating company called Arimetco. The tribe was trying to get the mine cleaned up from an environmental standpoint, but efforts had basically stalled when I arrived in December of 2002. The then Chairman, Elwood Emm, told me about their concerns and the then Tribal EPA Director, Duane Masters Sr., took me on a tour of the mine site. I was hooked.
It wasn't long before I discovered that the mine site was permeated with enriched uranium and radioactive cadmium that was leaching into the groundwater below the site. This was a matter that had been acknowledged, proven, and covered up through an elaborate networking of local and state officials. For many reasons, one of which is the fact that they bought the site from Anaconda, BP ARCO has a fundamental legal obligation to resolve the matter and they denied, denied, denied.
The Bureau of Land Management is part-owner of mine site lands and has a dual obligation. One is as a part-owner of a contaminated mine site, and the other is as a trustee of public lands. They hired a small crew of technicians to evaluate the site from an environmental standpoint, and one of those was Earle Dixon.
Part Cherokee Indian himself, Dixon was sympathetic to the Paiute dilemma. Dixon and I became friends and I was by then writing a column for the local newspaper, the MASON VALLEY NEWS. The column took the local "GOB" network to task over its stand on the mine site and fired off many volleys against BP ARCO.
It was at about this period of time in 2005 that Dixon pinpointed extremely high radiation on the mine site. BLM attempted to cover it up, but I carried the news in my column. A Lyon County Commissioner demanded that the tribe fire me, which did not happen. But the Council, fearing local political ramifications, did insist that I quit writing for the newspaper. That ignited a firestorm of public interest in getting at the facts.
I was by then concerned that the radiation was in the ground water and that the ground water was flowing under reservation lands. BP ARCO vehemently denied it and insisted that even if this were the case, that water under the mine site was contaminated, ground water only flowed at 1-3 feet per year at it could not possibly have migrated to the reservation.
Dixon discovered evidence that the groundwater was, in fact, contaminated. BP ARCO and Nevada State Environmental officials immediately claimed that the uranium in the groundwater was naturally occurring, flowing from the alluvial fan of nearby mountains and had nothing to do with the mine site. It was about this time that the BLM Director, Bob Abbey, demanded that Dixon's boss fire him. The boss refused, so the Director transferred Dixon's supervision from Carson City to the Reno office and fired Dixon himself.
The excuse for Dixon's firing was that his tenure was almost finished anyway and that his job performance was substandard, (inspite of the fact that Dixon had recently had a performance review that rated him as an "outstanding" employee.) Dixon claimed his firing was done because he was a "whistle blower" and that he was protected by law from being fired. The legal battle was under way.
In the meantime, I mentioned at a mine stakeholder's meeting that I was concerned that the water under reservation lands was already contaminated. The Lyon County Commissioner, a State Assemblyman, the Nevada EPA, and BP ARCO were quick to question my scientific basis but, in the process, I cornered them into conducting more water tests and I was proven to be correct. While denying that the contamination was coming from the mine site and insisting that it was naturally occurring, BP ARCO immediately started providing free bottled water to everyone living north of the mine site.
Dixon had an internal administrative hearing with the BLM and lost his case. He then appealed for a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge. The Judge ruled that the Commission, the Nevada Governor, the Nevada EPA Director, a Nevada State Senator and others had conspired to force the Federal BLM Director for Nevada, Bob Abbey, to fire Dixon and that Dixon had been telling the truth about what was going on at the mine site from a chemical and environmental standpoint. Indeed, some of the participants in the hearing were caught lying about what they knew and instructions they had given or been given. The BLM immediately appealed that ruling.
I left Yeringtion in June of 2006 to take a more lucrative job with another tribe, and those I left behind largely let their concern wane. Lyon County hired a public relations firm to pooh-pah the idea that the mine site was contaminated, and the USEPA official who had taken oversight of the mine assessment and cleanup was transferred to another project.
Finally, Earle Dixon has heard from his attorney that he won his case and the BLM will not further appeal the decision.
It's too early, of course, to tell what this ruling will mean, but I just might decide to get involved again. We'll see.
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