Tuleyome has been awarded a $1.4 million grant by the California Department of Fish and Game to clean up three abandoned mercury/nickel mines in the upper Putah Creek watershed during the next three years.

Four UC Davis researchers are part of the clean-up team.

“We are very excited by this,” said  Tuleyome Executive Director Sara Husby-Good in a news release. “It is a testament to the hard work that our Senior Policy Director Bob Schneider has done in this field. He has assembled an accomplished and talented team to make this happen. We are particularly pleased that this effort so closely aligns with our mission to protect our ‘Deep Home Place.’ ”

“There is a role for nonprofits in the effort to restore abandon mines in our region,” Schneider added. “We can bring attention and focus working with public officials and agencies to prioritize this need.”

The landowner originally purchased the property in order to donate it to the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District as it is a key piece in Napa Counties trail system plan. However, the district found that it could not accept the property with the current mercury contamination. The Tuleyome project is designed to clean it up.

“We are really pleased with this mine cleanup project and the great team that Tuleyome has assembled.  This project is a win for the environment, the landowner and Napa County residents,” Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillion said in the news release.

The team includes Stephen McCord of McCord Environmental; Greg Reller, Burleson Construction, which previously worked on Turkey-Abbot Run mine and are now working at the Sulpher Bank Superfund mine site at Clear Lake; Peter Green, Darell Slotton, Craig Thomsen and Vic Claassen, all of UC Davis; Tom Tsukamoto of TKT Consulting; and Michael Lozeau of Lozeau Drury LLP.

Tuleyome said the team also would work closely with an archeologist to restore and protect mine relics.

There are an estimated 40 abandoned mercury mines on public and private lands in both the Putah and Cache Creek watersheds.

“Clean up and restoration of these mine sites is difficult and demands persistence, collaboration and funding,” the news release said.

“The Turkey-Abbot Run mine adjacent to Highway 20 on the southern tip of Walker Ridge is one of the best examples of a successful clean-up effort and the Bureau of Land Management intends to award the contract in August to clean up much of the Rathburn-Petray mine on Walker Ridge above Bear Valley.”

The Twin Peaks and Corona mines are located on and immediately adjacent to an abandoned Oat Hill Mine Road easement held by Napa County. The easement abandonment, which occurred about 30 years ago, includes the provision that the county may reestablish the easement at any time for public purposes.

The southern eight miles of the Oat Hill Mine Road easement, which was also abandoned in the past, was reestablished in 2007 as a nonmotorized hiking, mountain biking and horseback-riding trail.

The northern five miles of the Oat Hill Mine Road easement were not opened to public use at that time due to concerns about public health and safety related to the Twin Peaks and Corona mines. Opening the northern five miles of the Oat Hill Mine Road to public use is one of the priority projects identified in the District’s Master Plan adopted in 2009.

For more information, contact Bob Schneider at [email protected] or visit http://www.tuleyome.org.

Mine photow

The land around the Corona Mine opening is littered with trash. This is one of three abandoned mercury/nickel mines in the upper Putah Creek watershed that Tuleyome will use grant funds to clean up during the next three years.Bob Schneider/Courtesy photo

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