“We will ask you to just say no, please do not certify this flawed EIR and do not approve the project,” said Laurie Oberholtzer to the members of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors in reference to upcoming decisions on the mine.
Excerpts from a Union article by Elias Funez | Managing Editor
January 25, 2023
Public comments given on topics ranging from homelessness to the possible reopening of the Idaho-Maryland Mine were front and center [at Tuesday's Nevada County Board of Supervisors meeting].
“We will ask you to just say no, please do not certify this flawed EIR and do not approve the project,” Laurie Oberholtzer said to the members of the board in reference to upcoming decisions on the mine.
Olberholtzer, a current member of Community Environmental Advocates (CEA), is a former Nevada City mayor and planning commissioner, and warned of the lasting impacts that approval of the mine’s re-opening could cause.
“Do we want a flawed EIR in our records that can be used in our future by the next Canadian gold mining company that comes along?” Olberholtzer said.
Olberholtzer reminded the board that there are 5,500 people who have signed against the project along with 15 local and statewide groups.
“The bottom line is that the community overwhelmingly does not want the Idaho-Maryland mine to reopen,” Olberholtzer said. “The many environmental impacts associated with this project as well as the inconsistency with both Grass Valley’s and the county’s land use plans, provide ample justification for denying the project.”
Ralph Silberstein, also with the CEA, noted that the county’s final Environmental Impact Report (EIR), released late last year, omits plans to clean up the Centennial site, a historically contaminated 56-acre parcel off of Whispering Pines and Centennial Drive in Grass Valley.
“Instead, Rise has included what it assumes are the base conditions that might occur,” Silberstein said of the proposed cleanup. “After it is cleaned up, Rise intends to dump mine waste there for about five years, but currently the cleanup is not done.”
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) states that the current conditions of a project must be assessed so that the environmental impacts and appropriate mitigations can occur.
Read the rest of the article online at The Union.