EPA: ARCO to spend $10.2M for Yerington mine cleanup

RENO (AP) " The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Atlantic Richfield Co. has agreed to spend $10.2 million for future and past cleanup efforts at an old copper mine in Yerington.

Under the settlement announced today, ARCO agreed to perform site cleanup estimated at $8 million and reimburse the EPA $2.2 million for past work.

EPA officials say the federal agency will use the recovered costs for further contamination containment efforts.

ARCO last year reimbursed the EPA $2.7 million.

The mine 65 miles southeast of Reno was the biggest producer of copper in the United States in the 1950s and into the 1960s before it was abandoned in 2000.

Processing of the copper produced a uranium byproduct, which contaminated the site along with arsenic and other heavy metals.