[env-trinity] Proposed gold mine threatens river refuge

[Richard Pruitt]

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
aitlin 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 at sfchronicle.com. 



Richard Pruitt
rickpruitt at earthlink.net
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
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