The Red Devil mine 250 miles west of Anchorage was once one of the nation's largest mercury mines. Operating for decades when there were few to no environmental rules for containing waste rock, it was by far the biggest mine in the highly mineralized region, known as the cinnabar belt because of the scarlet, cinnabar veins in the mountains.
Recent soil and sediment tests at the site have found levels of arsenic and mercury more than 100 times state and federal limits, state regulators say.
Last fall, a different study concluded that the Red Devil mine, as well as other abandoned mines in the region, were leading to higher-than-normal levels of mercury in fish. For the first time, the state issued guidelines warning families in the area not to eat too much pike and lush fish.
The pollution is so extensive that Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, who has clashed with the Environmental Protection Agency over its efforts to study the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine, now wants its help. The Pebble mine in Bristol Bay, it's important to note, would operate under much stricter state and federal rules than those in place during the heyday of mercury mining on the Kuskokwim.
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