Letter: Nevadans should help clean up Leviathan

Your May 25 article on the Leviathan public meeting in Gardnerville missed a couple of important points.

The quotation from the EPA's Dr. Ned Black of "No bugs or bunnies; no organism that we are interested in - including cutthroat trout - are going to survive this" refers to the pollution in Leviathan Creek and the upper part of Bryant Creek.

Your article infers that the pollution is in the East Fork Carson River, which is not true. No significant effects on bugs, bunnies or other life forms have been found in the river as a result of Leviathan pollution.

Contrary to your article, it was California, not Nevada, that obtained $2.3 million from Arco to help defray costs of the remediation in exchange for a release of liability.

To date California taxpayers have spent approximately an additional $5 million in cleaning up the site. This is more than generous in view of the fact that the Leviathan was designed, built, managed operated and abandoned by Nevadans who received almost all of the economic benefits. Without the sulphur produced from the Leviathan, Anaconda's Yerington oxide copper operation would not have been economic, another important economic benefit that Nevada received.

I would hope that some of your readers who are interested in seeing the site cleaned up would work to convince their fellow Nevadans that because Nevada received almost all of the benefits from the Leviathan Mine, and will receive all of the benefits of the clean up, Nevada should make a substantial contribution to the costs of the cleanup.

DAVID GRIFFITH