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CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Next week the US Environmental Protection Agency will begin constructing two test covers at sites in Clear Lake in an effort to stop or reduce mercury from a nearby Superfund site from getting into the lake.
The work will take place near the Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine site in Clearlake Oaks.
The EPA said the Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine initially was mined for sulphur from 1856 to 1871, mined intermittently for mercury ore from 1873 to 1905, with open pit mining taking place there from 1915 to 1957. The mine was listed as a Superfund site in 1990.
The agency said approximately 150 acres of tailings, waste rock and a flooded open pit mine – called the Herman Impoundment – are located on the mine property. The mine tailings extend into the Oaks Arm of Clear Lake along 1,300 feet of shoreline.
EPA Site Manager Gary Riley said the agency plans to install two test covers, or caps, composed of sand and gravel, and each measuring 100 by 120 feet, over two sites with high mercury concentrations offshore of the mine site.
“Groundwater is migrating from the mine itself and it discharges into Clear Lake in the area of these sediments,” he said.
The EPA has found mercury both in the sediments on the bottom of the lake as well as in the lake's food web, which led to an advisory to limit fish consumption due to mercury levels found in fish.
The field mobilization on the project began in earnest just after the start of the year, with the barges and watercraft needed brought in last week, Riley said.
Lake County Public Works Director Scott De Leon said the county wasn't involved in designing the project, which it was notified of on Dec. 31.
In preparation for the equipment going into the lake, all of the barges – De Leon estimated there were about a dozen of them – went through an inspection for the possibility of invasive mussels on Jan. 8.
“They had no problem with complying with our program or submitting any of their equipment to inspection,” De Leon said of the EPA.
The equipment to be used included floating turbidity curtains that will be placed at both sites where the caps are to be placed, De Leon said. Both curtains are about 100 to 120 feet long.
“It's basically a floating boom,” De Leon said, explaining that there is a curtain that hangs down below the float to the bottom of the lake. He estimated the work will be taking place in about 18 feet of water.
He said Lynette Shimek, a state game warden with a quagga mussel sniffing dog, conducted the inspections.
Riley said full scale construction of the test covers is to begin next Monday.
He said the two test covers will be placed in areas with different conditions. One will be in an area of some of the highest mercury concentration, with the other area having a moderate mercury level. He said one cap will be in shallow water, and one in a deeper area of the lake.
EPA wants to see if the covers will perform as they expect. Riley said capping and covering are ways to deal with contaminated sediments in harbors, lakes and rivers.
The test caps include 8 inches of sand placed on the bottom of the lake, which then will be covered with 8 inches of gravel, which Riley called an armoring layer.
He pointed out that the Oaks Arm of the lake is long, and gets a lot of wind and waves, so they will be monitoring the caps for their integrity.
Construction is set to continue for six weeks, Riley said.
The EPA said work is set to take place from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Over the next two years the EPA will monitor the sites and decide what steps to take next. The information to be gathered from monitoring the site will help the EPA decide on the most effective method for handling the site. If the covers are effective, Riley said they could end up placing a larger cover over the entire area.
There are a variety of ways to monitor the caps, Riley said.
Right after inspection there are surveys to make sure the installations were carried out properly, he explained.
They will then collect sediment from the tops of the caps as well as from under the covers using a custom made device, Riley said.
After having previously cleaned up contaminated materials on the Elem Colony itself, Riley said the EPA is “relatively far along” in coming up with a solution to finish cleaning up the mine property, including the Herman pit.
He said he expects the EPA will be able to put forward a preferred alternative, which is how they describe the cleanup plan, within the next year or two. He said that is a process that would require public notices and meetings.
At about the same time they will be getting the final information on how the test covers worked, Riley said.
As for when the project might ultimately be completed, EPA spokesman Rusty Harris-Bishop said it's hard to estimate a time frame for the entire project, with a number of issues to be considered and a lot depending on the selected remedy for the site.
“Certainly it's a half a decade off before everything is completed,” Harris-Bishop said.
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SOUTH LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Three people were injured late last week when a South Lake County Fire Protection District ambulance was hit head-on by another vehicle.
The collision occurred at 10:50 p.m. Friday, Jan. 11, on Highway 29 north of Tubbs Lane on the Napa County side of Mount St. Helena, according to the California Highway Patrol's Napa office.
The CHP said Petaluma resident Jennifer Pena, driving a Nissan Sentra, hit the ambulance.
South Lake County Battalion Chief Mike Wink said the ambulance was heading to Napa County with a patient for an interfacility transport, taking the patient from one hospital to another.
Two South Lake County Fire volunteers, whose names Wink and the CHP did not release, were in the ambulance with the patient.
The CHP said the ambulance was heading southbound at approximately 35 miles per hour, with Pena driving northbound at 40 miles per hour.
For an unknown reason, Pena allowed her vehicle to cross over the double yellow lines, hitting the ambulance, the CHP said.
Pena was uninjured, as was her passenger, Leon Joseph Sauvageau, 35, also of Petaluma, according to the CHP.
However, CHP officers found Sauvageau in possession of concentrated cannabis, a large amount of marijuana and a syringe, and arrested him.
The CHP said both South Lake County Fire volunteers and the patient had moderate injuries as a result of the crash.
Wink said the two firefighters were transported to Queen of the Valley Hospital and released later that night.
The patient was taken to St. Helena Hospital in Deer Park. Wink said he had been unable to get any information on the patient's condition.
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A report from the nation’s leading cancer organizations shows rates of death in the United States from all cancers for men and women continued to decline between 2000 and 2009.
The findings come from the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer.
The report also finds that during the same period the overall cancer incidence rate for men decreased and remained stable for women.
Among children ages 14 years or younger, the report shows cancer incidence rates increased 0.6 percent per each year from 1992 through 2009.
However, considerable progress has been seen for many types of childhood cancers, resulting in overall declines in death rates for cancer among children since at least 1975.
Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD, president of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, called the news encouraging, but says the overall number of cancer incidences and mortality rates are not falling nearly enough.
“Cancer rates are declining, continuing a trend that started some years ago. People are surviving more and we are getting better at preventing some cancers,” said Benz. “But we’re not taking advantage of all the ways to detect cancers at an early stage when they can be the most curable.”
The report is co-authored by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the National Cancer Institute, and the American Cancer Society. It will be published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
In a special feature section, the authors also showed an increase in the incidence rate of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers, including head and neck cancers.
The authors highlighted the important role of vaccination in the prevention of both cervical and non-cervical HPV-associated cancers.
“We are seeing a large number of patients with HPV-associated head and neck cancer and these patients are relatively young, are typically non-smokers and quite often have children,” said Robert I. Haddad, MD, chief of Dana-Farber’s head and neck oncology program. “HPV is a cause of many cancers, so it is really important to support endeavors to vaccinate.”
Benz noted that the good news is that utilizing these prevention strategies, such as vaccinations for HPV, can have a big impact on incidence and death rates.
“Many of the things that are still a problem in these statistics can be changed,” said Benz.
Leaders of eight federal departments and agencies announced that they have signed an agreement setting up a national council to guide implementation of the Obama Administration’s 21st Century Conservation Service Corps (21CSC) – a national collaborative effort to put America’s youth and returning veterans to work protecting, restoring and enhancing America’s great outdoors.
By signing the memorandum of understanding finalized, the secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, as well as the EPA administrator, chair of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service and Assistant Secretary for the Army (Civil Works) established the National Council for the 21CSC – fully implementing the first recommendation of the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative introduced by President Obama in 2010.
“The President’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative is helping to connect Americans from all backgrounds with the recreational, economic and health benefits of our nation’s extraordinary natural resources,” said Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps will help prepare the leaders of the future by providing youth with valuable opportunities for recreation, career development and service to their community and their Nation.”
“Building on the legacy of President Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression in the 1930s, the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps will help build and train a workforce who fully represent the diversity of America while creating the next generation of environmental stewards and improving the condition of our public lands,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
The 21CSC focuses on helping young people – including diverse low-income, underserved and at-risk youth, as well as returning veterans – gain valuable training and work experience while accomplishing needed conservation and restoration work on public lands, waterways and cultural heritage sites.
It builds on existing partnerships with youth conservation corps across the country to engage thousands of young Americans in hands-on service and job training experiences on public lands and community green spaces.
“By coordinating resources across the federal family and working with partners, the 21CSC will accomplish important restoration work, provide more job and training opportunities to a diverse group of young Americans, expand educational opportunities for youth, and create meaningful pathways to careers-- all while reconnecting America’s youth with the great outdoors,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
“This is a great example of how innovative partnerships are utilizing government resources more efficiently and effectively,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “The Labor Department is committed to working with our partners to provide young people – especially those from underserved communities – with exposure to a wide variety of in-demand jobs and valuable training opportunities that can form the foundation of lifelong careers.”
"Our federal lands and waters are vital to the health and well-being of Americans,” added Jo Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works), who oversees the Corps of Engineers. “The 21CSC will expand the Corps’ capacities to conserve and maintain these areas, and provide youth and veterans with meaningful work, education and exposure to the outdoors."
The announcement expands ongoing efforts of the administration to increase job opportunities for young people, a priority for this administration since the beginning days.
Over the past four years, the Department of the Interior has dramatically increased the number of young people the Department engages, educates and employs: youth employment has increased by 35 percent since the beginning of the Obama Administration, with an average of 20,000 young people employed per year.
The USDA Forest Service’s focus on expanding youth engagement opportunities resulted in an investment of more than $18 million in FY 2012 on programs and partnerships that provided volunteer, service and employment opportunities on national forests and grasslands for nearly 10,000 young people.
The Department of Commerce has employed returning veterans in conjunction with the California Conservation Corps. “21CSC is an important resource for helping put our youth back to work while promoting environmental stewardship,” said Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank. “And at the same time, it’s a critical opportunity to focus on making certain our veterans have access to quality jobs. We here at Commerce plan to use 21CSC to expand NOAA’s existing habitat conservation programs to provide technical training to veterans and youth so they can develop expertise in the conservation sector.”
The Corporation for National and Community Service has extensive experience engaging youth in results-driven service. “As we see every day in AmeriCorps, young people bring extraordinary energy, passion, and talent to public service,” said CNCS CEO Wendy Spencer. “This partnership is a win all-around: it expands opportunity for young people, taps the leadership skills of veterans, improves our public lands, and puts a new generation on a lifelong path of service.”
21CSC members and their contributions range from youth corps members helping run shelters and restore parks and beaches in New York City in the wake of Hurricane Sandy to youth and veterans building trails and leading interpretation programs in remote national parks, forests and coastal habitats.
“The 21CSC program is a great example of how collaboration – not only across federal agencies, but also among others in the private and public sectors – can bring about economic, environmental and health benefits for those who need it the most: our youth and our returning heroes,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “America is home to some of the most beautiful outdoor spaces in the world. The 21CSC will not only help our young people feel more of a connection to those spaces, but it will also ensure our treasured outdoors are preserved for generations to come.”
Creating the National Council was a key recommendation from the Federal Advisory Committee in support of outdoor youth engagement announced by Secretaries Salazar and Vilsack in December 2011. Composed of representatives of the nation’s conservation, service and workforce development groups, along with representatives from federal agencies, this committee was charged with advising the federal agencies on how to build on the important ongoing work of local, state, federal and non-profit youth conservation corps. Within their six-month deadline, the committee provided Salazar and Vilsack with guidance on a framework for the Conservation Service Corps’ vision, principles and strategies.
The National Council will work across the federal government to support the 21CSC by enhancing partnerships with existing youth corps programs around the nation; stimulating existing and new public-private partnerships; and aligning the investment of current federal government resources.
Members will be represented on the National Council by members of the senior leadership of each agency, bureau or office.
The National Council will initially be co-chaired by representatives from the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, for a one-year term, after which the two co-chair positions will be chosen from among the National Council members by consensus.
For additional information on the 21CSC, visit: http://www.doi.gov/21csc .
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – An early Sunday morning pursuit ended with the arrest of a Middletown man who was stopped after running over a spike strip deployed by a California Highway Patrol officer.
Arthur Wayne Weatherwax Jr., 20, was taken into custody following the incident, according to Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
At 1 a.m. Sunday a Lake County Sheriff’s patrol deputy was traveling north on Highway 29 approaching Middletown when he observed a white Ford pickup pull onto the highway from Butts Canyon Road without stopping at the stop sign, Brooks said.
The deputy activated his vehicle’s emergency lights and siren in an attempt to conduct an enforcement stop. Brooks said the driver of the vehicle, later identified as Weatherwax, activated his emergency flashers, started to pull over and then accelerated, failing to yield.
According to the deputy, Weatherwax accelerated up to approximately 90 miles per hour, crossing over the double yellow and white fog line several times. Brooks said Weatherwax reportedly passed a vehicle over the double yellow line, driving in the oncoming lane of traffic between the Bar X ranch and Grange Road.
Weatherwax also drove through the intersection of Highway 29 and Hartmann Road at approximately 60 miles per hour, failing to stop at the stop sign. Brooks said Weatherwax continued traveling north on Highway 29 maintaining a speed of approximately 90 miles per hour.
A California Highway Patrol officer deployed a spike strip at Highway 29 and C Street in Lower Lake, which punctured both front tires of the pickup, Brooks said.
The vehicle started to slow down as the front tires deflated. Brooks said Weatherwax then started driving in the oncoming lane of traffic of Highway 29, just north of Spruce grove Road in Lower Lake.
Brooks said a second deputy had joined the pursuit and went ahead of Weatherwax’s vehicle in an attempt to clear oncoming traffic to avoid a collision with the suspect’s vehicle.
As they approached Clayton Creek Road, Brooks said Weatherwax slowed to approximately 25 miles per hour and started pulling off to the shoulder of the highway, as if he was going to stop, according to Brooks.
The deputy in front of Weatherwax slowed down as well and Brooks said Weatherwax then accelerated quickly toward the rear of the second deputy’s patrol car and attempted to strike it with his vehicle. The deputy was able to avoid the collision by quickly accelerating.
Weatherwax continued north on Highway 29 and then onto Highway 53. After the front tires of his pickup disintegrated he was no longer able to maintain control of the vehicle and stopped on Highway 53, just north of Anderson Ranch, Brooks said.
Weatherwax exited his vehicle and lay down in the prone position next to his pickup, Brooks said. Weatherwax was taken into custody without further incident.
Weatherwax was arrested for evading a peace officer with willful or wanton regard for the safety of persons or property and assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, and transported to the Lake County Hill road Correctional Facility where he was booked, Brooks said.
On Monday Weatherwax remained in custody, with bail set at $50,000, according to jail records.
Congressman Mike Thompson, chair of a congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force (CA-5) and vice-chairs of the task force met on Monday with Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to discuss a comprehensive approach to reduce and prevent gun violence.
“Meaningful progress towards reducing and preventing gun violence cannot be made by just one branch of government,” said Thompson. “Our task force looks forward to working with the Vice President, the Obama Administration and all stakeholders to enact a comprehensive set of proposals that both respects the 2nd Amendment rights of law abiding citizens without a history of dangerous mental illness, and helps keep our schools, streets and communities safe from gun violence.”
Congressman Thompson was joined in the meeting by vice-chairs of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force: Rep. Ron Barber (AZ), Rep. John D. Dingell (MI), Rep. Elizabeth Esty (CT), Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (NY), Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO), Rep. Bobby Scott (VA) and Rep. Jackie Speier (CA).
Over the next several weeks the task force will hold a number of meetings and hearings with different experts designed to identify the best policies to reduce and prevent gun violence. A comprehensive set of policy proposals will be released by the task force in early February.