VERSHIRE — A long-awaited Superfund cleanup at a former copper mine is expected to start in about two years thanks to money included in the recently passed federal infrastructure law, federal officials said Friday.
The measure included $1 billion to clear a backlog of 49 previously unfunded sites identified for cleanup by the federal Superfund program, including the Ely Mine in Vershire.
The exact allocation has yet to be determined, but the Environmental Protection Agency will know how much money will go to the Ely Mine over the “coming weeks,” said Bryan Olson, director of EPA New England’s Superfund and Emergency Management Division.
A “comprehensive cleanup” at the Ely Mine may cost as much as $28 million, he said.
The EPA will work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “to ramp up to begin cleanup work in late 2023, or possibly early 2024,” he said. He emphasized that the EPA would work with the state and local community to make sure that the final implementation “works for all.”
“While we are excited about the remediation, we do still hope the history of the mine and the people who worked there will not be lost in the process,” said Vershire Selectboard Chair Vernal Stone in a statement for the EPA’s announcement on Friday.
In Vershire, mining peaked from 1853 to 1905, although there were attempts to recover more copper during World War I and in the late 1940s. The EPA designed a cleanup, which has been awaiting funding since 2018. The 350-acre site off Beanville Road includes 30 acres of waste material with an estimated 172,000 tons of waste rock, tailings and other hazardous wastes.
The abandoned copper mine joined a list of the most polluted sites in the country when it was designated a Superfund site in September 2001. The Superfund program, established by Congress in 1980, gives the EPA authority to force polluters to clean up contamination, but the agency often picks up the bill of “orphan sites” when the responsible parties are bankrupt or long gone. The infrastructure bill invests $3.5 billion in environmental remediation at Superfund sites and reestablishes a “chemical excise tax,” which forces polluting industries to pay for cleanups.
The EPA recently completed the Superfund cleanup of the Elizabeth Mine in Strafford. The project at that copper mine cost a total of $103 million.