Low turnout at Questa Superfund meeting
Residents cite ongoing health concerns amid cleanup process
After low attendance at its remotely-held Superfund community meeting last week spurred two Questa officials to request an in-person do-over, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representatives said they would visit the Taos County community that was once home to an underground and open-pit molybdenum mine as soon as pandemic conditions permit.
The Questa Mine in northern Taos County was declared a Superfund site in 2011. Cleanup costs are currently expected to top $800 million.
“We do not have [an in-person meeting] planned, but we can most certainly discuss that,” said Nichole Foster, remedial project manager for U.S. EPA Region 6. “We can most certainly look into hosting an in-person meeting, possibly, or doing another virtual one if conditions are not favorable for in person.”
Roughly 20 members of the community joined about a dozen representatives from the Village of Questa, Taos County, the EPA, Chevron and the New Mexico Environment Department for the March 15 online update about ongoing mine cleanup operations at five sites: the tailing facility area east of Questa, the Red River riparian area south of the tailing facility area, Eagle Rock Lake, the mine site and the mill area.
Molybdenum, which is largely used as an additive in high-temperature steel manufacturing, was mined and processed at the site from 1919 to 2014, when the mine closed. According to the EPA, the mine is home to 300 million tons of waste rock and 100 million tons of tailings. The agency estimates that remediation, including water treatment, will be ongoing at the site for at least 30 more years.
“When will the site be at a point where it is 100 percent clean and can be deleted from the National Priorities List? That will be in the far-distant future because of the nature of the site,” said Elizabeth Pletan, EPA assistant regional counsel. “There is groundwater contamination [that] Chevron is pumping out and treating at its mine site water treatment plant. When you have groundwater contamination, that situation has to be pumped out and treated basically into perpetuity.”
Brent Larsen, EPA permitting sections chief, explained that — after several years delay — the process of renewing the site’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, including state and federal public comment periods, will be a top priority.
But, he said, “Right now, the Red River is not impaired for anything that’s directly attributable to Chevron mine discharges,” adding that previously high levels of aluminum “no longer exists.”
In response to several comments about turbidity levels in the Red River, Larsen said “turbidity comes from many places that may be contributing, but [the mine] is unlikely to be the sole source.”
John Anthony Ortega, a Questa native who will take over the position of mayor on April 1, estimated that four times as many community members had participated in pre-pandemic Superfund update meetings.
“Before COVID, they were doing them pretty often,” Ortega told the Taos News. “I think it’s important that the people in Questa hear from both EPA and NMED because it kind of clears the air and sets the record straight with information instead of rumors.”
Outgoing Questa councilor and former Chevron Mine Safety Engineer Charlie Gonzales said the remote meeting format isn’t universally accessible for village residents.
“We were having a lot of internet problems [March 14], and I had to go to Taos to get internet,” Gonzales said, going on to praise the EPA’s overall presentation. “It was pretty thorough, but one of the things that you failed to talk about was the medical issue. We have 170 or more citizens that have passed away with either cancer or heart attacks or kidney problems or asthma and a lot of other illnesses. I think the answers we have gotten are not satisfying.”
Heather Davis with EPA Region 6 assured Gonzales that the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is “definitely aware of the health concerns that are out there, and I do know we plan to take them out there for those one-on-one discussions.”
Davis added that the New Mexico Department of Health “has asked if there’s any particular cancers that you’re aware of. We would greatly appreciate a list if there are any particular ones that are continuing to pop up.”
Gonzales also questioned a tentative proposal to use a 2-foot cover of soil over the former tailings site rather than the three feet of cover that’s mandated in the Record of Decision that governs the cleanup. A five-year pilot project was begun in 2020 to determine if two feet of ground cover is adequate.
“We’re not going to allow anybody to walk on that 2-foot cover, therefore, we’re restricted to the recreational part of the tailings,” Gonzales said. “That’s a slap in the face to this community.”
The modified ground cover depth is one element of a proposed fourth amendment to the original Record of Decision that would also provide for the design of a “permanent sludge repository” at the wastewater treatment site, investigation and preliminary design for “Group 2 waste rock piles” and a “pre-design investigation of south of the tailing facility,” according to the EPA presentation.