Another campaign is underway to clean up historic mining contamination in Nevada County. Thursday evening, the Sierra Fund is hosting a virtual community meeting on what’s called the Brownfields Assessment. Grass Valley received a nearly 600-thousand dollar grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to manage the assessment, in 2017. Community Development Director Tom Last will present the key findings. It was conducted on eleven vacant and undeveloped properties totalling 386 acres, near population centers, also including Nevada City, where hazardous substances were identified…

click to listen to Tom Last

Last says seven cleanup plans have been prepared for 229 acres…

click to listen to Tom Last

But funding is still needed for the work. Last says a significant amount of EPA grant funding is also available for that, but mostly for cities and non-profit groups. He says grants for private property owners would be more difficult to obtain. Presentations will also be made by a member of the consulting firm that conducted the study, an EPA official, and the Program Director of the Sierra Fund. Then there’ll be a question and answer period. The zoom meeting is from 6 to 7:30pm on Thursday. You can register through the Sierra Fund website.