Map of Sulphur Bank Mine site (EPA)
A former mine in Lake County will be cleaned up. The Sulphur Bank Mine operated from the 1860’s to 1957 as one of the largest Mercury mines in the United States. However, the 160-acre landscape currently has enough mining waste contaminated with arsenic, mercury and other toxins to fill a quarter-of-a-million dump trucks. The EPA has announced that money is now available to clean up the mine as part of a third and final wave of more than $1-billion dollars for projects nationwide. Clean up is scheduled to begin next year and finish around 2029. When finished, mercury leaching into nearby Clear Lake is expected to be reduced by 95-percent.