The Nevada Irrigation District's innovative project to remove Gold Rush-era mercury from the Bear River could receive a financial boost through a Prop. 84 grant.

The NID Board of Directors on Wednesday voted to apply for a grant of up to $1 million to fund the mercury project near the mouth of Combie Reservoir, at the border of Nevada and Placer counties.

If the application is successful, NID could receive the funding in the coming fiscal year for site improvements and restoration work, NID Assistant General Manager Tim Crough said.

NID plans to extract the mercury as part of an ongoing operation to remove gravel and sediment, which if left untouched, would wash into the reservoir and take up valuable water storage space.

The state funding would come from Prop. 84, the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006, which is administered in the region by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.

The overall mercury project, estimated at $9 million, has won the support of U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, who has requested a $3 million congressional appropriation for next year. NID is awaiting word on the success of the senator's effort.

NID's project is being viewed as a model for other efforts to remove Gold Rush-era mercury from Sierra Nevada waterways. Used in the 1800s to separate gold from other materials, mercury, also called quicksilver, remains buried in the sediments of many area rivers.

Salary survey, pipeline, FERC

In other business, the NID board:

• Voted to receive and take under advisement a job classification and compensation study of the district performed by Bryce Consulting Inc. of Sacramento. The independent study compares NID positions, wages and benefits to those of 13 other agencies around the region.

Results of the study were questioned by some employees and members of the board. Implementation is not anticipated in the near future.

• Heard public comments from three Banner Mountain residents who called for improvements in the practices of NID's private contractor on the ongoing Banner Cascade Pipeline Project.

District staff will meet with residents, and the primary contractor, Teichert Construction Inc. of Marysville, will be asked to respond at the next board meeting.

NID has worked to minimize impacts of the large construction project. The district has a full-time project manager, two inspectors, two on-site ombudsmen and two environmental consulting firms on the job.

• Heard an announcement from General Manager Ron Nelson that NID's federal relicensing project for the Yuba-Bear River Hydroelectric Project is on track and that the district's draft application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is scheduled for submittal Nov. 1.

Directors will hold an October workshop on the relicensing effort.

Nevada City resident and freelance writer Dave Carter contracts with the Nevada Irrigation District.