Selenium Discharges from Lehigh
to Permanente Creek
Alice Kaufman, Legislative Advocate
Committee for Green Foothills
alice@greenfoothills.org
Selenium Impacts to Aquatic
Organisms
• Known to affect fish, amphibians, birds that prey
on them
• Reproductive toxicity – eggs fail to hatch or young
fail to develop, birth defects
• Bioaccumulative (builds up in organisms over
time)
• Water Quality Objective (WQO) for selenium in
the Bay Area is 5 µg/l
Impact on Human Health
• Selenium is necessary in small amounts, but
harmful in larger amounts
• FDA recommended minimum amount is 70
µg/day; EPA maximum allowable dose is 350
µg/day for a 150-lb person
• Short term health effects: hair and fingernail
loss, fatigue, irritability
• Long term effects: damage to liver, kidneys,
nervous and circulatory systems
Kesterson Reservoir
• Runoff from agricultural lands; drained into Kesterson
Wildlife Refuge
• Concentrations were found to be over 1400 µg/l
• Deformities in fish and birds included severe curvature
of spine, missing eyes/beaks/legs, exposed brains
• In 1983, 64% of embryos and hatchlings of aquatic
birds were found to be deformed (per USGS paper)
• 1987: Kesterson declared a toxic waste dump, drained
and partially buried
• Ag runoff now goes to San Joaquin River (which now
has elevated levels of selenium as well) or to on-site
evaporation ponds
Lehigh Permanente Quarry
Photo credit: Anne Ernst
Selenium at Lehigh
• Selenium is naturally occurring in the limestone on site;
becomes mobilized on contact with air and water
• Lehigh has now mined below the level of the water
table – groundwater constantly seeping into quarry pit
• Lehigh pumps water out of pit (“dewatering”) in order
to mine further
• Water goes into retention pond (Pond 4), then pumped
into creek
• Avg daily flow into pond: from 250,000 to 2.5 million
gallons/day
• Selenium may also be leaching from piles of limestone
rubble and waste in the creek
Selenium Levels on Lehigh Site
• Range between 13 to 81 µg/l in Permanente
Creek immediately downstream from quarry pit
• Concentrations in runoff water from the waste
piles ranged from 7.1 to 38 µg/l (EMSA) and 29
µgl (WMSA); runoff from “wall washing” of
quarry walls was 14 µg/l
• Concentrations in quarry pit water: 82 µg/l
• Concentrations in “dewatering pond” (Pond 4A):
100 µg/l
Selenium Downstream From Lehigh in
Permanente Creek
• Slightly elevated levels in Permanente Creek at
Rancho San Antonio: 3 of 5 samples taken were
above WQO (6, 9 and 12 µg/l); further
downstream there were no detectable levels of
selenium
• Inconclusive (only one sample performed) testing
performed in 2011 just west of 280 showed no
detectable levels of selenium
• Permanente Creek is listed by RWQCB as
impaired for selenium
Other Pollutants Exceeding WQOs at
Lehigh
• Mercury: WQO is 0.025 µg/l; concentrations in creek
range as high as 0.07 µg/l; surface water runoff as high
as 0.36 µg/l
• Nickel: WQO is 52 µg/l; concentrations in creek range
as high as 110 µg/l; surface water runoff as high as 180
µg/l
• Sulfate: WQO is 250 mg/l; concentrations in creek
range as high as 1,110 mg/l; surface water runoff as
high as 550 mg/l
• Molybdenum: WQO is 50 µg/l; concentrations in creek
range as high as 750 µg/l; surface water runoff as high
as 160 µg/l
Wildlife in Permanente Creek
• San Francisco Estuary Institute 2007 study documented
several species of fish: California roach, Sacramento
sucker, Threespine stickleback, bluegill, carp, rainwater
killifish, and mosquitofish.
• Fish are mostly located west of 280 in the upper
reaches.
• WRA conducted wildlife survey for Lehigh in 2009 and
found: rainbow trout, Sacramento sucker, and
mosquito fish
• 9 amphibious species were found including California
red-legged frog.
• Birds in riparian area: great blue heron
What Is Being Done?
• RWQCB is requiring reports from Lehigh on their
discharges to the creek
• RWQCB webpage on Lehigh:
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/sanfranciscobay
/water_issues/hot_topics/lehigh.shtml
• RWQCB regulation based on these reports:
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permit: probably in 2013
• Sierra Club lawsuit
• MROSD lawsuit
Clean Water Act
• Regulated by RWQCB
• Prohibits discharge of any pollutant into waters of
the U.S. except according to NPDES permit
• Lehigh has a general stormwater permit and a
sand and gravel permit, but no NPDES permit
• Anyone may sue to enforce if they have standing
• Sierra Club lawsuit: discharge of pollutants
without a permit; dumping quarry waste into
creek
Surface Mining and Reclamation Act
(SMARA)
• Reclamation: restoring land to condition for
beneficial use
• Reclamation Plan Amendment (RPA) describes
what Lehigh will do to restore land to open space
• Lehigh plans to continue mining in quarry pit till
2020, then will start reprocessing material from
WMSA and use waste to backfill quarry pit
• Material will continue to be dumped in EMSA till
2015, then will be revegetated
• Only covers reclamation, not actual mining or
other activities (e.g. cement plant)
EIR for Lehigh’s Reclamation Plan
Amendment
• CEQA/EIR overview
• Significant impacts found: aesthetics/visual
quality, biological resources, cultural resources,
water quality/hydrology
• Because EIR only evaluated impacts from
reclamation activities, did not address any
impacts due to actual mining or from cement
plant
• MROSD lawsuit: EIR was inadequate; failed to
mitigate impacts to air and water quality, visual
resources, and wildlife