CASE FILE NUMBER: CACA-49292
DOCUMENT NUMBER: CA-670-2008-076

General Description of the Project

The purpose of this project is to allow production of mineral materials in eastern Imperial County. BLM conducted a competitive bid sale in August 2007 in which Pyramid Construction was awarded 1,000,000 tons of waste rock from the former Padre Madre gold mine site. The proposed project would mine existing overburden stockpiles remaining at the site and process these materials for sale as construction aggregate in the local Imperial County market. The project would reduce, reuse, and reclaim or recycle what are considered wastes, thus removing waste stockpiles and restoring the area to near-original surface contours.

This Environmental Assessment was submitted for public review/comment. Comments were accepted through January 5, 2009.

Prior to release of the 2009 Decision Record, BLM had completed specific tests on the mineral material at the Padre-Madre site in an effort to characterize the material for potential toxicity in compliance with standard protocols of the Environmental Protection Agency and state of California. BLM completed the California approved standard test method for determining whether a solid material is susceptible to extraction of heavy metals into the human and natural environment. Further test was conducted in July 2011, in compliance with the direction from the Interior Board of Land Appeals in their July 14, 2010 decision (179 IBLA299) to take a hard look at the CERCLA issues that may result from disposal of the rock material. The additional testing done by the BLM was on crushed and classified rock material greater than 10 mesh screen that would typically be removed from the site as product. Testing did not indicate that the classified material has the characteristics of toxicity. Table 5 of the Final EA reflects all testing of the rock material.

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