Projects

The Afterthought Mine is an abandoned copper mine located approximately 13 miles east of Redding, California. The Afterthought Mine operated from the late 1870s until it was abandoned in 1959. In 1997, the current owners of the mine were served civil suit provisions under CWA. They were challenged to characterize and remediate the acid mine discharges from the mine that had degraded the waters in Afterthought Creek and Little Cow Creek. The sulfide minerals remaining in the mine, when exposed to oxygen and groundwater, create acid that leach metals from the rocks, which eventually discharge to surface waters through portal seeps and underflow.  The most famous example of this phenomenon is the Iron Mountain Mine Superfund site north of Redding.  VESTRA staff, while working for a previous employer, was retained by the mine owners to conduct site mapping, manage the permitting and regulatory compliance issues, conduct receiving water and effluent sampling, characterize the contribution of individual portal discharges and waste rock piles, reporting, and preparing a remedial action plan for the site.