A two-year dispute over who should pay the multi-million dollar cost to clean up a former Amador County Gold Mine has been settled. After a lengthy stalemate, the subsequent legal proceedings between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Honeywell International Inc. and land developers came down to a court decision over who should cover the 4.3 million dollar cost of removing arsenic near a residential neighborhood. The mine in question is the Central Eureka near Sutter Creek, which produced gold worth an estimated 36 million dollars between 1855 and 1958. Years later, nearby property was purchased by Nehemiah Development company as the site for a development constructed in 1977 called Mesa De Oro. But like many potential areas of development in our County, the future of Mesa De Oro was threatened unstable soil, the accumulated result of years of mining tailings.

In this case, the mesa was actually an eleven foot mound of crushed ore. After a contractor digging at the site showed signs of arsenic exposure in 1994, the Environmental protection Agency, or EPA, declared the mine and surrounding property a Superfund site. The EPA took extensive measures to render the land usable, including the removal of contaminated soil, fence construction and a sediment basin to capture run-off. The dispute began when the EPA sued the Central Eureka Mining Company’s successor, Honeywell International and its partner Nehemiah Developers to recover the cleanup costs. While Honeywell settled for 2 million, Nehemiah filed cross complaints against 36 other developers and property owners. On June 12, a Contra Costa County Court judge approved the last of the settlement agreements. Charles Bruner, the developer of the Vista Ray subdivision in Sutter Creek, agreed to reimburse 20,000 dollars of the cleanup costs. The remaining costs went to the EPA and totaled 1.75 million. The case is being looked at as a cautionary tale for property owners and Real Estate developers who live and work within the Mother Lode region.