29 May 2013, NEVADA CITY – Last week the Sacramento Bee ran an excellent story about the recently awarded EPA Brownfields grant to the Yuba River Charter School in Grass Valley. The story showcases the toxic problems that so many of our Sierra communities face.
TSF staff and working group advisors were quoted, as well as the EPA Region 9 Administrator, making the case to a statewide audience about the need for cleanup of abandoned mines and other toxic dumps in this region.
The Sierra Fund led a tour of abandoned mines in the Grass Valley area last year for EPA Region 9 Administrator Jared Blumenfeld. In the Bee article he comments, “There are few areas in this country that have the toxic legacy of this area, because this is the epicenter of gold.”
The EPA decided to fund the cleanup of the Grass Valley burn fields – under the supervision of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control – to “meet the protective standards” for a school, Blumenfeld said.
“The reason (that giving) this grant was compelling was the immediacy of the risk and the upside if it (the burn site) could be cleaned up quickly,” he said. “We’re not getting many projects that rise to this level. And it really is a testimony to the parents that got involved.”
Read the full article on the Sacramento Bee website for the excellent YRCS parent interviews provided by TSF Science Director Dr. Carrie Monohan, Carrie’s daughter Kamis, and TSF’s partners Kyle Leach and Jane Sellen.
