LOOMIS — Washington state has added the abandoned Black Bear Mine in far north-central Washington to its list of hazardous sites for cleanup.
The mine is located on the southwest side of Palmer Mountain, about 100 miles north of Wenatchee and one mile north of the community of Loomis.
The mine produced gold, silver and copper on federal property managed by the Bureau of Land Management until about 1947. The site now has a waste rock pile with about 15,000 cubic yards of material contaminated with cadmium, lead and mercury, said Valerie Bound, toxics cleanup program manager for the state Department of Ecology.
She said soil samples showed lead levels that are six times the state’s maximum allowable level. Cadmium levels were 11 times the state standards, and mercury levels were more than five times the state standards.
A cleanup schedule has not been set. The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for the cleanup. The state may help with the effort, but currently has no money to provide, Bound said.
Although the federal government has its own cleanup program, she said putting this mine on the state’s hazardous site list will ensure that it’s cleaned up to the more stringent state standards.
“The whole northern tier of Washington state has a lot of abandoned mines,” she said, and the state is in the process of screening those that should be cleaned up.
The Black Bear Mine is listed at a Level 4 priority, out of five levels, just above the lowest priority. Bound said that’s likely because it’s not close to inhabited areas or a water source that could become contaminated.
However, she added, “When we decide these sites are important enough to put on the list, we don’t really feel like the number is that important. They’re on our radar now. This puts them on a priority list.”
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