Grass Valley Natural Spring Water is Contaminated - The Union - News

You see once the ground is contaminated. It is naturally that Spring water will contaminated as well..

Cleanup mired in legal battle

Grass Valley, miners fight over contamination

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Becky Trout, beckyt@theunion.com
December 2, 2004
Grass Valley and the Newmont Mining Corporation remain locked in a legal struggle, neither willing to claim ownership or financial responsibility for the hundreds of thousands of gallons of contaminated water that flow into the city's wastewater treatment plant each day.

The mine discharge was discovered in 2000 as the wastewater treatment plant was undergoing expansion, Public Works Director Rudi Golnik said. The seepage was always considered a natural spring until its orange discoloration spurred workers to investigate its source.

They discovered the water stemmed from the vast underground network of tunnels leftover from the Northstar Mine, Golnik said. The city entered negotiations with Newmont, which has owned the mine since the 1930s.

After failing to agree how to stem the flow and split the costs, Grass Valley took the company to federal court. The case remains unresolved. Read More....The Union - News