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August '09 Newsletter, Yavapai Group
Yavapai Group News
MEMBERSHIP REPORT:
491 memberships, 586 members in Yavapai Group as of June 2009
PRESCOTT TRAIL MAINTENANCE:
Prescott National Forest has expressed a need for volunteers to assist with trail maintenance in the Prescott area. The Sierra Club is sponsoring four workdays to trim brush overhanging several trails near Prescott. We'll announce the dates and locations next month. We hope you can spare a day to improve the hiking trails in our neighborhood.
STILLMAN LAKE RENOVATION:
The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the AZ Game and Fish Dep't are beginning work to re-establish a native fishery in Stillman Lake. The process will be to remove all fish from the lake and then to restock with native species. Stillman Lake is a natural lake above Verde Springs fed by springs. Occasional flood flows in Granite Creek have built up a gravel bar that dams the lake, backing up water for about a mile forming a native fish nursery for the Upper Verde. When Big Chino Wash floods, native fish will be washed into the Verde.
MONITORING VERDE FISH FOR MERCURY
The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Sierra Club are monitoring the levels of Mercury in fish tissue in the Upper Verde River. The testing is scheduled for 3 years and is underwritten by Drake Cement. Results of the first tests are not yet in.
TAXPAYER PROTECTION INITIATIVE
The Taxpayer Protection Initiative has qualified for the November ballot in Prescott. The initiative will amend the City of Prescott
Charter to require a voter for most city projects with a value of $40 million or more, including the Big Chino Pipeline Project. Although the Big
Chino Pipeline Project is undoubtedly the spark for this citizen initiative, the measure covers all municipal projects. We urge our members to support this issue and talk to your neighbors for their YES vote. For more info, check out their web site: YESon401.com, or email info@taxpayerprotectioncommittee.com, or
call Brad at 499-7726.
DRAKE CEMENT HARDENS TRAILHEADS
Drake Cement has donated materials and labor to place boulder barriers at several key trailheads accessing the Upper Verde River. Illegal ATV traffic has been a serious problem that the Forest Service has not been able to control. We appreciate the good corporate citizenship of Drake Cement and their efforts to preserve the Verde.
SAVE THE VERDE ALLIANCE:
The Alliance is working on a website that will focus on protecting Verde River base flow and ecology.
FOREST STEWARDSHIP:
We are continuing to work with Prescott National Forest to form a non-profit group that can assist PNF with planning, maintenance, and education. Two of us are touring the San Bernadino NF this month to learn from their wildly successful program. We have selected a name - Community Forest Trust - and are gathering board members and soliciting donations and grant funds.
SAVE THE VERDE SIGNS CONTEST:
Once upon a time, Burma Shave signs were a marketing sensation along American roadways. Six signs were placed along the road about 100 yards apart, each with a fragment of a jingle. As you drove past the series of signs, you got the whole message. For example: "TRAINS DON'T WANDER", "ALL OVER THE MAP", "FOR NO ONE", "SITS ON THE", "ENGINEER'S LAP", "Burma Shave."
Help us have some fun with a series of signs bringing attention to our Save The Verde campaign. We want to erect a series of signs ending with "Save The Verde". Will you enter our contest and suggest some creative signs?
Rules: The wording must fit on a 18x54 inch sign; contest ends Aug 31; limit three entries per person; the last sign must always be "Save The Verde". Panel of judges to be composed of the Excomm with their decisions final. Only one prize awarded per individual, consisting of a one year Sierra membership or renewal. Winners will be published on the website. Send entries to Tom Slaback by email to prescottkid@peoplepc.com.
We are looking for landowners to allow us to put up the signs, especially along Hwys 89, 89A, and 69 and will give extra credit in the judging (or one of the memberships) if the entry includes the place to install the signs.
New Water Monitoring Opportunity
By Doris Cellarius
Prescott Creeks invites Sierra Club Water Sentinels and other interested members to help them monitor water quality in Prescott's creeks. This information will help them in their work with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality plan to improve water quality in Granite Creek and Watson Lake.
Volunteers would will be trained in procedures for collecting water samples and recording conditions at specific sites along the creeks. A first meeting to explain the program will be held Tuesday, August 18 from 5 - 6 PM at The Grove , 119 Grove St.
For more information about what Sierra Club Water Sentinels do in Arizona and other states, see http://www.sierraclub.org/watersentinels/
For more information about helping out with this Prescott project, contact Doris Cellarius 928-778-6724 or doris@cellarius.org
Import Toxic Waste to Iron King?
by Doris Cellaruis
Cleanup of the former Iron King Mine and Humboldt Smelter, designated an EPA Superfund Site in September 2008, is of interest to us in Yavapai County, and of even greater importance to residents of Dewey-Humboldt. A new issue that could complicate the cleanup is a proposal to bring mine tailings from another mining site in Arizona to Dewey-Humboldt. They are contaminated with arsenic and manganese and the proposal is to process and sell them over a period of 15 years. The Town Council HAS voted to object to this proposal until questions are answered about the hazards it poses to the site and the community.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: The Town of Dewey-Humboldt Environmental Issues Advisory Committee is looking for additional members. It assists the city in addressing environmental issues such as this cleanup. Public involvement in Superfund cleanups is very important because it always makes them better, so we encourage interested residents of Dewey-Humboldt to offer to serve on this important committee. All you have to do is contact Town Hall for an application: deweyhumboldt@dhaz.gov.
UPDATE ON RECENT ACTIVITIES: Designation by EPA as a federal priority cleanup site triggered new environmental testing in the community. This is helping citizens as well as EPA understand where work is needed and where there is little to worry about. Soil sampling showed that arsenic levels in soils are low enough to present no immediate health problem. The only long-term concern is arsenic levels in Chaparral Gulch, which could be a problem if an individual was exposed to it for a long time. Therefore it was advised that children should not play in that area. For years citizens, annoyed and troubled by blowing dust from the mine tailings, had unsuccessfully asked for air monitoring. Now there are four ambient air sampling stations installed, collecting data on particulates and specific metals. Other studies include a Cultural Resource and Historic Building Survey and a Biological Evaluation.
An Aerial Photographic Analysis of the Site was performed. Historical black-and-white, color, and color infrared aerial photographs that cover the period from 1940 to 2003 were studied. The analysis reveals the locations of different operations and processes, and how tailings and waste piles transformed over time. Through the analysis, EPA gained information about the locations of significant site features (for example: areas of historic surface water flow and impoundments) that they can incorporate into the Site investigation. The University of Arizona (UA) Superfund Basic Research Program is working on a pilot study to determine if and how phytostabilization could be used to reduce wind-blown dust from the large tailings pile. They are studying the amount of compost needed for successful plant establishment on Iron King Mine tailings pile. EPA will present a report on the Remedial Investigation at a community meeting in the fall.
LEARN MORE: The local public information repository for the site is the Dewey-Humboldt Town Library 2735 N. Corral Street Dewey-Humboldt, AZ 86329. (928) 632-5049, (http://yavapailibrary.org/dhl.htm <http://yavapailibrary.org/dhl.htm> ). If you would like to be added to EPA's mailing list for this site or would like more information, please call their toll free hotline (800) 231-3075 and leave a message with your name and address. For information about the cleanup, including technical documents, visit EPA's website:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/db29676ab46e80818825742600743734/316161edfc4699a5882574ab0001d1c0!OpenDocument
This cleanup in Dewey-Humboldt is very important because it will improve the economy and quality of life for this young and growing city. We hope residents of the area will respond to this opportunity to help by joining the Environmental Committee. Please contact me if you have questions . I have worked on Superfund cleanups in the past and am happy help anyone who wants to get involved.
Doris Cellarius (doris@cellarius.org)
Salazar Protects Grand Canyon Watersheds
Order Temporarily Bans New Uranium Claims and Exploration Across 1 Million Acres of Public Land Surrounding Grand Canyon National Park
GRAND CANYON, Ariz.-- Conservationists are applauding action announced today by the Obama administration to temporarily place 1 million acres of public lands surrounding Grand Canyon off limits to new mining claims and exploration or development of existing, unpatented claims. The order complies with a 25 June 2008 resolution by the House Committee on Natural Resources enacting the same protections across the same area. The protections do not affect three existing mines in the area slated for reopening or the exploration of existing patented claims.
Uranium prices have caused sharp increases in new uranium mining claims, exploration, and permitting to reopen old mines on public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. Uranium development threatens to damage wildlife habitat, industrialize iconic wildlands, and contaminate surface water and groundwater feeding regional water wells, seeps, springs and the Colorado River -- prompting concerns from former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Navajo, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai, and Kaibab Paiute tribes, Coconino County officials, and independent geologists.
This page was last updated on August 12, 2009