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State Board Tentatively Rules for CSPA on Mine Pollution Appeal
by Bill Jennings, Executive Director
August 4, 2009 -- The State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) issued a tentative decision on August 3rd, on the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance's (CSPA) appeal of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board's (Regional Board) wastewater discharge permit for the Soper Company's Spanish Mine. The tentative order upholds virtually all of CSPA objections to the permit and remands the permit back to the Regional Board to revise in compliance with state and federal law.
Spanish Mine is a former gold and barite mine in Nevada County. The mine discharges acid mine drainage from two point sources into Poorman Creek and Devils Canyon, both of which are tributary to the South Fork of the Yuba River. The discharges contain arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel and zinc in concentrations substantially above water quality objectives.
The identified beneficial uses of the receiving waters include municipal and domestic supply, agriculture supply, contact and noncontact recreation, cold freshwater habitat, cold freshwater spawning and wildlife habitat.
The Regional Board adopted the permit on 31 July 2009 and CSPA filed an appeal with the State Board alleging that the permit was illegal, failed to comply with mandated regulations and was not protective of the receiving waters.
Agreeing with CSPA, the State Board's tentative order concludes that:
1. The permit improperly includes only Best Management Practices for the discharge when numeric effluent limitations are necessary.
2. The Regional Board improperly relied upon an infeasibility exception to numeric limitations that is not allowed by the State Implementation Plan for the California Toxics Rule.
3. Establishing numerical effluent limitations for both priority pollutants and other pollutants is feasible.
4. A mixing zone study is required before any dilution credit is granted and any dilution credits must be applied to calculate effluent limitations, not receiving water limitations.
Comments on the tentative order are due by noon on 7 September 2009 and a workshop is scheduled for 15 September 2009. The State Board will make a final decision at a later date.
The decision represents the fifth time in little more than a year that the State Board has remanded a CSPA appealed permit back to the Regional Board with direction to comply with basic regulations. CSPA has some 50 appeals still pending before the State Board of Regional Board actions that do not comply with the law and are not protective of water quality. CSPA is the only organization routinely reviewing and commenting on proposed waste discharge permits in the Central Valley.