News
In a recent edition of The Union, Mike Pasner urged the Planning Commission and the City Council to protect our city and its inhabitants from re-opening the Idaho-Maryland Mine.
I couldn’t disagree with him more. This would be a clean operation, and would provide the much-needed job opportunities for this area. Grass Valley needs industry to sustain it’s tax base, and re-opening the two mines would certainly help.
Mr. Pasner states that blasting will send out vibrations that will affect the hospital’s sensitive equipment. This is not true. The hospital is much higher in elevation and 2,500 feet away from where the blasting would take place. If he had his facts right, he would have known that there has been a lot of blasting close to the hospital.
The contractor had to blast many times, when the large parking lot and new diagnostic center where constructed. There was a lot of hard rock to content with, and blasting was necessary. The blasting was very close to the hospital and no problems occurred.
The Idaho-Maryland Mining Corporation would take careful precautions while blasting on the surface and for a safe distance underground. There would be no huge blasts. Each drill hole would be blasted separately and the explosive in each hole would be timed to explode several seconds apart. Each hole blasts into another giving good fragmentation of the rock. It also reduces the vibrations to practically nothing. I can see no problems involving the hospital or the businesses in the Whispering Pines Business Park.
The miners underground used the same blasting principal. There was not one large blast including all holes being blasted at once. Blasting was done as explained above.
Each shift had a specified time when all miners on all levels blasted at the same time. You don’t hear the blasts underground due to solid rock conditions. Sometimes you could hear a faint knocking sound. I was underground a lot during the blasting and I can honestly say that I did not feel any rock vibrations.
Mike Pasner is concerned that people on Banner could have their wells affected if the mines are dewatered. Sharon Delgado has also written an opinion piece against the mine’s reopening, which was published in The Union newspaper. They both have concerns that some or more wells would go dry or at least be affected.
Sharon Delgado states the several hydrologists have indicated that due to the region’s unpredictably fractured rock patterns, no one knows how many wells would go dry or in which areas.
Well, there is one person who knows — and I am that person. I have been through all levels of both mines and they are quite dry. I worked at the two mines for 13 years, eight years as the safety engineer, and the mine superintendent when the mines closed in 1956.
I am saying that none of the wells would go dry or be affected in any manner due to the mine reopening. You may think that this is a bold statement, but I know I will be right when the mines are dewatered.
The water in the New Brunswick Shaft is down 260 feet below the surface. This is the water level in both mines with the water flowing into Wolf Creek daily. The wells are located in the fractures, cracks and crevices close to the surface. These openings get smaller as they descent. The rock gets more solid and the water doesn’t penetrate the rock. The same happens in the fissures.
The Empire and North Star mines were much deeper and had a greater amount of underground workings. There were several areas at that time where people relied on wells for water. The mines did not cause problems with the wells nor the ground water then and should not affect them now.
The water levels in the Idaho-Maryland and Brunswick mines are approximately 200 feet below the bottom of the wells. This leaves a 200-foot void between the bottom of the wells and the water level in both mines. That void has been there since the two mines filled with water in 1957.
The ground water in which the wells exist was not affected when all of the mines were in operation prior to 1956. No well was affected in all of that time, so I cannot see why pumping water from both mines would make any difference now.
The two environmentalists distort the truth about the truck traffic. First of all, Idaho-Maryland Mining Corporation can use trucks on public streets and highways just like all the other businesses and companies. The trucks would blend in with the traffic flow with no adverse problems. Practically everything sold in Grass Valley is hauled in by large trucks, whether it is gasoline, concrete, lumber, food products, gravel, beverages, etc.
Some days during the summer there are as many as thirty or more semi-trucks traveling down Colfax Avenue through the two light systems and then up onto the freeway headed for the hot mix plant out by Hanson Brothers. These large trucks flow along with the traffic.
A person doesn’t realize how many trucks there are in Grass Valley and the Glenbrook area each day. Make it a point to notice and you will be surprised. In the afternoon when the schools let out, West Main Street is full of school busses, and in a short time they are all gone. That is because they move along with the normal traffic.
Sharon Delgado is concerned about cyanide to be used in ore processing being trucked through town. When the mines were in operation the zanthates listed in the draft environmental impact report were used in the milling process.
The other chemicals listed were used in the cyanide plant. Those chemicals were perfectly safe because they were stored and used properly. Sharon Delgado seems more concerned with the diesel exhaust from the Idaho-Maryland trucks than all of the present heavy trucks working in the area.
There were neither injuries nor incidents involving any of the chemicals, including the explosives and cyanide, while I was with the company. Every six months a safety inspector from the California Division of Industrial Safety would make a safety inspection of the underground and surface operations. It was my job to take the inspector around wherever he wanted to go. He never found anything wrong in the cyanide plant operation.
I couldn’t disagree with him more. This would be a clean operation, and would provide the much-needed job opportunities for this area. Grass Valley needs industry to sustain it’s tax base, and re-opening the two mines would certainly help.
Mr. Pasner states that blasting will send out vibrations that will affect the hospital’s sensitive equipment. This is not true. The hospital is much higher in elevation and 2,500 feet away from where the blasting would take place. If he had his facts right, he would have known that there has been a lot of blasting close to the hospital.
The contractor had to blast many times, when the large parking lot and new diagnostic center where constructed. There was a lot of hard rock to content with, and blasting was necessary. The blasting was very close to the hospital and no problems occurred.
The Idaho-Maryland Mining Corporation would take careful precautions while blasting on the surface and for a safe distance underground. There would be no huge blasts. Each drill hole would be blasted separately and the explosive in each hole would be timed to explode several seconds apart. Each hole blasts into another giving good fragmentation of the rock. It also reduces the vibrations to practically nothing. I can see no problems involving the hospital or the businesses in the Whispering Pines Business Park.
The miners underground used the same blasting principal. There was not one large blast including all holes being blasted at once. Blasting was done as explained above.
Each shift had a specified time when all miners on all levels blasted at the same time. You don’t hear the blasts underground due to solid rock conditions. Sometimes you could hear a faint knocking sound. I was underground a lot during the blasting and I can honestly say that I did not feel any rock vibrations.
Mike Pasner is concerned that people on Banner could have their wells affected if the mines are dewatered. Sharon Delgado has also written an opinion piece against the mine’s reopening, which was published in The Union newspaper. They both have concerns that some or more wells would go dry or at least be affected.
Sharon Delgado states the several hydrologists have indicated that due to the region’s unpredictably fractured rock patterns, no one knows how many wells would go dry or in which areas.
Well, there is one person who knows — and I am that person. I have been through all levels of both mines and they are quite dry. I worked at the two mines for 13 years, eight years as the safety engineer, and the mine superintendent when the mines closed in 1956.
I am saying that none of the wells would go dry or be affected in any manner due to the mine reopening. You may think that this is a bold statement, but I know I will be right when the mines are dewatered.
The water in the New Brunswick Shaft is down 260 feet below the surface. This is the water level in both mines with the water flowing into Wolf Creek daily. The wells are located in the fractures, cracks and crevices close to the surface. These openings get smaller as they descent. The rock gets more solid and the water doesn’t penetrate the rock. The same happens in the fissures.
The Empire and North Star mines were much deeper and had a greater amount of underground workings. There were several areas at that time where people relied on wells for water. The mines did not cause problems with the wells nor the ground water then and should not affect them now.
The water levels in the Idaho-Maryland and Brunswick mines are approximately 200 feet below the bottom of the wells. This leaves a 200-foot void between the bottom of the wells and the water level in both mines. That void has been there since the two mines filled with water in 1957.
The ground water in which the wells exist was not affected when all of the mines were in operation prior to 1956. No well was affected in all of that time, so I cannot see why pumping water from both mines would make any difference now.
The two environmentalists distort the truth about the truck traffic. First of all, Idaho-Maryland Mining Corporation can use trucks on public streets and highways just like all the other businesses and companies. The trucks would blend in with the traffic flow with no adverse problems. Practically everything sold in Grass Valley is hauled in by large trucks, whether it is gasoline, concrete, lumber, food products, gravel, beverages, etc.
Some days during the summer there are as many as thirty or more semi-trucks traveling down Colfax Avenue through the two light systems and then up onto the freeway headed for the hot mix plant out by Hanson Brothers. These large trucks flow along with the traffic.
A person doesn’t realize how many trucks there are in Grass Valley and the Glenbrook area each day. Make it a point to notice and you will be surprised. In the afternoon when the schools let out, West Main Street is full of school busses, and in a short time they are all gone. That is because they move along with the normal traffic.
Sharon Delgado is concerned about cyanide to be used in ore processing being trucked through town. When the mines were in operation the zanthates listed in the draft environmental impact report were used in the milling process.
The other chemicals listed were used in the cyanide plant. Those chemicals were perfectly safe because they were stored and used properly. Sharon Delgado seems more concerned with the diesel exhaust from the Idaho-Maryland trucks than all of the present heavy trucks working in the area.
There were neither injuries nor incidents involving any of the chemicals, including the explosives and cyanide, while I was with the company. Every six months a safety inspector from the California Division of Industrial Safety would make a safety inspection of the underground and surface operations. It was my job to take the inspector around wherever he wanted to go. He never found anything wrong in the cyanide plant operation.
Jack Clark lives in Grass Valley.
