The move comes two months after federal regulators backed off plans to add the mine to the list of the most toxic U.S. Superfund sites.
Atlantic Richfield, owner of the former Anaconda copper mine, was suddenly halting the free home delivery of bottled water it’s provided since 2004 to about 100 residences on a neighboring Native American reservation in Nevada where scientists continue to track the movement of a poisonous plume of groundwater.
The Yerington Paiute Tribe alleges the abrupt change was retaliation for its fight against a recent move that puts the state and the company in charge of cleaning up the mine site instead of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Over the tribe’s staunch objections, the EPA in February backed off plans in the works for years to formally elevate the mine to priority status on a list of the most contaminated Superfund sites.
It will resume home deliveries, as well as groundwater sampling on tribal property, once a “valid access agreement can be obtained” from the tribe, Clanton said.
The neighbors had accused past owners of conspiring to cover up the extent of groundwater contamination.
The company continues a legal battle with the tribe.
The EPA said in announcing the Anaconda mine’s removal from the list that “cleanup activities progress, and completion of specific milestone and timelines have benefited from the administration’s influence.” But Dietrick McGinnis, a longtime environmental consultant for the tribe, said the new timelines the EPA released in conjunction with the February agreement to defer any priority Superfund listing indicate groundwater cleanup will be delayed by more than four years.
Sandoval announced in 2016 he was reluctantly dropping the state’s opposition because the listing would make $31 million in federal cleanup funds available.
On Friday, several volunteers helped a delivery driver for Alhambra Waters unload several tons of water at a market off the reservation about 2 miles (3 kilometers) north of the mine — most of it in 5-gallon (19-liter) jugs but also in 24-packs of thousands of plastic bottles.