A little over a month before Nevada County Supervisors consider the vested rights petition for the Idaho Maryland Mine proposal, opponents are fine-tuning arguments against it. That includes the Community Environmental Advocates Foundation. The group’s president, Ralph Silberstein, says since they issued an initial statement about the petition, in August, they’ve found more specific legal history that vested rights can only be granted if a mine has been in continuous operation. All mining ceased by 1957…

click to listen to Ralph Silberstein

Rise Grass Valley asserts that operations have been suspended, but not ceased. But Silberstein says the EPA has determined it’s an abandoned mine…

click to listen to Ralph Silberstein

Rise Grass Valley refers to the 1996 Hansen Brothers ruling from the State Supreme Court in 1996, which awarded vested rights to an aggregate processing operation. They say the court recognized that ceasing operations for long periods of time does not constitute abandonment. The County Planning Commission rejected the reopening of the Idaho Maryland Mine last spring. County Supervisors were scheduled to hear an appeal in October. But the vested rights hearing, scheduled for December 13th, has pushed back that other proceeding until next year.