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SACRAMENTO – The
Office of Mine Reclamation (OMR) and the
U.S. Forest Service are protecting
public safety by plugging the abandoned
Otter Creek Mine on June 26 and 27. The
mine is located near Georgetown on El
Dorado U.S. Forest Service property.
“When we visited the
mine recently we could hear singing. It
was coming from a nearby elementary
school,” said Cy Oggins, head of OMR’s
Abandoned Mine Lands Unit. “That was a
pretty good clue that we needed to get
the mine sealed. Children and old mines
are a bad combination, and there was
plenty of evidence that people had been
inside the mine.”
A contractor hired by
OMR, part of the California Department
of Conservation, will install a 20-foot
long, 6-foot-around steel culvert with a
gate at the entrance inside the adit
(tunnel). The culvert will stabilize the
mine and prevent people from going
inside, as well as maintain portions of
the adit that officials believe may be
bat habitat. It will be placed roughly
halfway inside the adit and the
remaining sloughing material above it
will be pulled down, burying the culvert
and producing a stable slope.
Since 2002, OMR has
partnered with a variety of local, state
and federal agencies to remediate more
than 250 hazardous abandoned mining
features around the state. The type of
remediation – fencing, backfilling,
polyurethane foam plugs, bat-compatible
gates or demolition – depends on the
mine’s location, condition and other
factors.
“Often, we’re
concerned about hazards associated with
abandoned mines, such as falling into
vertical shafts,” said Department of
Conservation Assistant Director Doug
Craig, head of OMR. “That isn’t the case
here. It’s an adit, or tunnel, that goes
back several hundred feet. But the
material at the entrance is crumbling
and looks like it could collapse at any
time. It’s clearly a dangerous place to
go.”
Six years ago, an OMR
report estimated that there are 47,000
abandoned mines in California. While the
Otter Creek site was dug in the 1970s
and abandoned because no valuable
minerals were found, many abandoned
mines pre-date any regulatory or
reporting authority, or even statehood
itself.
There is no
comprehensive database that gives the
precise location of most these mines or
their underground workings. Each mine
may have multiple man-made “features,”
such as shafts, tunnels, machinery,
facilities or tailing piles that can
present either a physical or
environmental hazard.
OMR has concentrated
its efforts on the physical hazards
associated with abandoned mines and
features. In the past nine years,
Abandoned Mine Lands Unit staff visited
more than 2,300 abandoned mine sites and
inventoried more than 13,500 features.
Sites known to have drawn curious
members of the public or those that are
located close to homes, roadways, or
recreational areas are given top
priority for remediation.
“There seems to be an
accident related to abandoned mines
every few months in California,” Oggins
said. “There’s been one fatality and a
handful of near-misses since March. As
more people choose to live or recreate
in areas associated with historic
mining, the likelihood for encounters
with abandoned mine hazards increases,
and our efforts become more crucial.”
When it comes to
abandoned mines, OMR’s motto is “Stay
Out, Stay Alive.” Anyone who encounters
an abandoned mine site is asked to call
1-877-OLD-MINE so the site can be
investigated and ultimately remediated.
“We’ve made a great
deal of progress in finding and
prioritizing abandoned mines in the last
few years, but we still have a ways to
go,” Department of Conservation Director
Bridgett Luther said. “We appreciate
mining’s contributions to California’s
history and the modern industry’s
approach to environmental stewardship.
However, we must continue to address
this unfortunate legacy of bygone mining
eras to protect public safety.”
In addition to
ensuring the reclamation of land used
for mining, the Department of
Conservation studies and maps
earthquakes and other geologic
phenomena; regulates oil, gas and
geothermal wells; maps and classifies
areas containing mineral deposits;
administers agricultural and open-space
land conservation programs; and promotes
beverage container recycling.
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