Heck lays out plan for Henderson mine cleanup

WASHINGTON -- To reclaim the long-abandoned Three Kids Mine in Henderson, technicians will need to deal with sheer cliff open pits as deep as 400 feet and waste ponds up to 60 feet deep filled with more than a million cubic yards of poisonous tailings.

Mining waste piles to 10 stories high in some areas, and excavators will need to move enough earth to fill a modern sports stadium six times.

Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., drew that picture for a House subcommittee on Thursday as he sought support for a new bill to get the work started.

"Something must be done to address this serious blight on the Henderson community," Heck said. He appeared before the energy and mineral resources subcommittee studying strategies for abandoned mine reclamation.

The old manganese mine site on Lake Mead Parkway has been on the radar for years as a priority for environmental cleanup, Heck said.

But there had never been a realistic estimate of what that would take. The mix of federal and private land at the site added to the complexity.

Four years of negotiations involving Henderson and state officials, the Department of Interior and a master plan developer cleared a path for a new try, Heck said.

The bill Heck introduced this week would convey 948 acres of federal land at the site to the Henderson Redevelopment Agency. The parcel would be targeted for cleanup alongside 314 acres of private land.

The 1,262 total acres have been designated a redevelopment area called Lakemoor Canyon. The agency has entered an agreement with Lakemoor Development LLC, which would perform the cleanup and convert the property into shop areas and neighborhoods.

The legislation would transfer the federal property, now controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation to the city for fair market value, but only after that is offset by the estimated cost to clean it up.

Heck said cleanup estimates range from $300 million to $1 billion, while the value of the land if it were "clean" ranges from $95 million to $190 million.

Once the property is rebuilt, the developer would recoup cleanup costs through a rebate on a portion of property taxes that Henderson would collect from the new community over a 30-year period.

"This is a unique and complex public/private partnership proposal," Heck said. When land ownership is turned over, Heck said the government would be released from liability for the environmental and safety hazards at the site.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.