Proposed Gold Mine Threatens River Refuge
By Glen Martin, San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, July 26, 2004

JUNCTION CITY, TRINITY COUNTY -- When James Curran returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Marine sergeant in 1967, he sought out a refuge. He found it about 7 miles up Canyon Creek, a major tributary of the Trinity River.

"It was so beautiful, so peaceful," recalled Curran, 60. "We've been here ever since."

Curran ultimately got a job as a county social worker. He and his wife, Megan, raised two children, Michael and Caitlin, on their homestead, which has been transformed over the years into a vast garden of vegetable plots, fruit trees and greensward. Now in their 20s, Michael and Caitlin still live on the property, working as river guides.

But there is a potential intruder in the Currans' bucolic paradise: A proposed 23-acre open-pit gold mine, located on four separate but adjacent sites on the upper reaches of the creek in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

The issue is bigger than Canyon Creek, say the Currans and their allies. They say the project threatens all the rivers in Northern California because it establishes a precedent for industrial-scale open-pit gold mining on federal land in the region.

The Currans and their neighbors say the mine, proposed by Master Petroleum, a company controlled by partners Gloria Marshall and Cullen Thomas of Junction City, will scar the land and divert too much water from Canyon Creek and its tributary, the Big East Fork. Canyon Creek is known for its exceptionally cold, clean water, essential to the Trinity River's threatened salmon and steelhead runs.

Additionally, say critics, the pits would be within 100 feet of the creeks, threatening them with polluted seepage.

Open-pit mining differs significantly from dredge mining, which is commonly practiced on Northern California streams.

Dredge mining employs a device that sucks up gold nuggets from the streambed; the amount of rock moved is minimal, though water siltation can occur.

Open-pit mining involves the use of heavy equipment on the "benches" above a creek to dig through rocks and dirt to the gold-bearing stratum. Large amounts of water are required to process the recovered ore, and site reclamation is necessary to restore the land to a natural semblance.

Master Petroleum could gain the right to establish the mine through the 1872 Mining Act, which allows private parties to stake claims on public lands.

Marshall and Thomas say fears about their proposal are overblown. They note that they have been extracting gold -- via open-pit methods -- from various spots on a 40-acre privately owned parcel adjacent to the proposed mine site for six years, and that they are in the process of restoring the areas where excavation has occurred.

And Marshall said the mine will have no impact on anadromous fish (which ascend rivers from the sea for breeding).

"The amount of water we'll use will not have an effect on the creeks," she said. "It's like a drop in the ocean."

But critics of the project are not mollified. With a precedent set, they say, sensitive tributaries all along the Klamath and Trinity drainages would be vulnerable to open-pit mining, with much of their water used to process ore rather than sustain endangered salmonids.

The Master Petroleum mine would use about 190,000 gallons of water a day for up to 22 days a month for 10 months out of the year -- more than the fisheries of the two affected creeks can tolerate, Michael Curran said, especially during dry years. As proposed, the mine would operate for up to 25 years.

Another problem, say the Currans: The mine would be located cheek-by-jowl with the Trinity Alps Wilderness, one of the most heavily visited wilderness areas in the state.

"The Canyon Creek trailhead services about 60 percent of the visitors to the wilderness area," said Caitlin Curran. "The area around the mine site is wild and heavily forested. This mine would be visible from the road, a blight on that landscape."

Michael Curran also criticized restoration prospects for the mine.

Downstream from the family homestead, said Curran, is a defunct open-pit mine considerably smaller than Master Petroleum's proposed project. It closed two decades ago, and restoration was attempted.

"The only thing they've got growing on it is star thistle," he said. "It's barren."

But Marshall says the project has been characterized inaccurately by opponents.

"I just don't think people have been educated enough on the proposal," said Marshall. "We're within the guidelines for the riparian zones established by the U.S. Forest Service. We're going to restore the land. We won't have water-quality problems because the benches drain away from the creeks, not toward them."

Gold, Marshall said, is a much-needed commodity, in demand by high-tech industries as well as jewelry manufacturers.

"We're helping supply that commodity, and we're providing local jobs while we do it," she said.

On two of the key points, Mike Mitchell, a supervisory natural resource planner for the U.S. Forest Service who is overseeing Master Petroleum's proposal, was in agreement with Marshall and Thomas.

The amount of water the mine will use is equivalent to about 15 swimming pools a day, he said. "Considering the outflow of the creeks, that isn't much."

Mitchell also said he believed sound restoration was possible after the mine's gold is played out.

"I know some of the residents on Canyon Creek are unhappy about earlier restorations, and we'll be looking at that," he said. "I do think it can be done right."

But the Hupa Indians, who live and fish along the Trinity, don't share Mitchell's sanguine view.

In an e-mail to the forest service, Robert Franklin, a fisheries biologist employed by the tribe, argued that the proposed project would lead to irreparable impacts, including water-quality impairment, decreases in stream flows during periods critical to fish and degraded riparian zones.

"Considering that the (federal) Wild and Scenic designation for the Trinity River is based on its outstanding anadromous fisheries," Franklin wrote, "this project seems an inappropriate use for public land."

Mitchell pointed out that the mine has not yet been approved. The forest service, he said, will take public comment through August, develop a list of alternatives and issue a draft environmental impact statement by spring of 2005.

"If this project goes forward, it will be closely monitored and fully mitigated," he said.

But the Currans believe there can never be adequate mitigation for open- pit mining on Canyon Creek. The issue, said James Curran, isn't about mining per se -- it's about industrial scale, destructive mining in sensitive areas.

"We love miners," Curran said. "You have a dredge and want to take it into the river -- go for it. The impact is minimal. But this is horrendous.

"And if it goes through, where will it stop? Technically, you could put open-pit mines all along the high bench on this creek, and along all the other creeks on the Trinity, and the Trinity itself, and the Salmon River on the Klamath. It'd be a catastrophe."

E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin@sfchronicle.com.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.

Naturalists, Miners See Gold in Trinity Alps
By Alex Breitler, Redding Record Searchlight
June 8, 2004

JUNCTION CITY -- One of the most popular creeks cascading from the Trinity Alps may soon be the site of a major gold-mining operation.

A mining company wants to process as many as 1.4 million tons of gravel by digging open pits along Canyon Creek about nine miles north of Junction City, west of Weaverville.

The digging could continue for anywhere from five to 25 years and has attracted the attention of conservationists from as far away as the San Francisco Bay area.

They fear such a large project might kick sediment into the creek, which gushes into the Trinity River and eventually into the environmentally delicate Klamath River.

And they say scenery would be spoiled for summer backpackers and campers who flock to a series of pristine lakes from which the waters flow.

"This mining project is a direct threat to those values," said Christine Ambrose of the American Lands Alliance in Oakland.

Some Trinity County residents have raised objections, too, particularly those that live along the creek. They talked about water quality and traffic worries during a public meeting last month.

The U.S. Forest Service has decided to do a full environmental impact statement on the project. While mining isrelatively common in Trinity County, this operation is notable for its size.

"It's at the high end of the scale," said Michael Mitchell, natural resource officer for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Weaverville.

Master Petroleum Inc. says the project would span 22 acres and would take place in individual stages.

Never would more than 5 acres of land be disturbed at once, the company says in its proposal.

Areas that have already been mined will be restored and replanted before moving on to the next phase.

"We're not fly-by-nighters," said President Gloria Marshall, who came from Texas six years ago. "We're not out here trying to invade other people's world. This is our world, too."

Marshall's company -- which she said consists of her, her husband, and a geologist and his family -- bought property on Canyon Creek and has already done some mining there.

This time they're hoping to search for gold on surrounding public lands.

A test dig in 2000 uncovered gold, though Marshall won't say how much.

The U.S. Forest Service is reviewing the plan, but any citizen has a basic right to seek minerals in public lands.

Under the plan, gravel would be carried away by conveyor belt through a processing system in which the gravel would be washed, filtered for gold and returned to the pit.

The operation would include a bulldozer, excavator, backhoe and front-end loader, and ponds would be built to hold water.

Some timber would be cleared while about 190,000 gallons of water each day -- or enough water to serve about 135 families in a year -- would be drained from the creek.

But no chemicals would be used, Marshall said, and berms would be erected to prevent runoff.

She said neighbors have overreacted.

"They look at these big numbers on the amount of dirt to be removed, and they say, 'Oh my, they're going to leave a crater in there like the atom bomb,'" she said. "But we've tried to be very cautious in how we select these areas."

That doesn't appease Ambrose, who sent out an e-mail alert urging people to gather signatures at the Canyon Creek trail head opposing the plan.

Trinity County has been a jackpot for gold mining historically, with one of the densest populations of mines in California outside the Mother Lode.

But gold is still being pulled from the hills, including nearly 13 tons statewide worth $122.3 million in 2001, according to the California Geological Survey. The mineral's value has soared from around $270 an ounce three years ago to $395 an ounce today.

Gold is used in computers, weaponry and aerospace technology.

Reporter Alex Breitler can be reached at 225-8344 or at abreitler@redding.com.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.

Open Pit Mining Operation Proposed in Trinity County
By John Driscoll, The Eureka Times-Standard
May 22, 2004

An open pit mining operation on a creek that flows out of the Trinity Alps Wilderness may yield significant gold -- but it has drawn the ire of residents and environmentalists in Trinity County.

Weaverville company Master Petroleum Inc., with origins in Texas, is looking to mine on about 22 acres just outside the wilderness, and within 100 feet of Canyon Creek. The operation proposes to take 1.4 million tons of gravel from pits over the next five to 25 years.

The operation would likely be visible from the road that leads to the Canyon Creek trailhead -- the most visited trail in the alps. Canyon Creek feeds the Trinity River, an important salmon river slowly being restored.

The company insists it'll do nothing to harm the creek, but residents worry it could become another disastrous mining operation like others in the county.

"It's just a really bad idea," said Drew Franklin, a Weaverville business owner and Junction City resident. "This would just be a disappointment every time you see it," he said.

The U.S. Forest Service is reviewing the proposal, but would be powerless to stop it. The 1872 Mining Act confers a right to enter public lands to search for minerals. It is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement, however, which will examine a range of alternatives for the project.

Master Petroleum geologist Cullen Thomas said buffers along the creek and along the road are intended to address aesthetic and environmental concerns. He said the company is going after a valuable commodity now experiencing a shortfall worldwide, and intends to perform only as much work as is needed to get the gold.

"We don't intend to tear up the world," Thomas said. "That's not our cup of tea at all."

The operation would occur in four stages and involve significant heavy equipment. D-7 and D-8 bulldozers, excavators, front-end loaders, backhoes, sluices and pumps would be used, and two ponds would be constructed.

Most of the site would be logged as well.

About 100,000 gallons of water per day would be taken from the Big East Fork of Canyon Creek for processing the gold-bearing placer gravels.

Master Petroleum first submitted the plan in 1998. In 2000, the company tested the area about nine miles north of Junction City for gold. And it's there.

But it requires that about 25 to 65 feet of gravel must be removed from the top of the pits to reach the last 10 feet of gold-rich deposits just above the bedrock.

Forest Service Resource Officer Michael Mitchell said the government can demand certain conditions are met, but has to, by law, process the request.

Mitchell said the placement of the mining pits -- some of which are above the 100-year flood line -- would be looked at very carefully. A bond to ensure the areas are put to bed and replanted is required.

What happens if there's a catastrophic failure of a pit or a major fuel spill? Mitchell was not sure if the Forest Service has the authority to impose a major bond to guard against such a possibility.

Naturally occurring mercury and arsenic sometimes comes along with mining operations, and warnings about mercury levels in certain fish are posted on Trinity Lake because the chemicals were dredged up by old mining operations.

Mitchell said it's likely state water quality officials have or will examine if there is potential for that at the Canyon Creek site.

The Forest Service is seeking public comment on the proposal until Aug. 26, and a decision document won't be available until probably the fall of 2005, Mitchell said.

Comments can be sent to Michael Mitchell, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, P.O. Box 1190, Weaverville, 96093.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.