When Archaeological Research arrived on site, an excavation protocol was developed see protocol. The protocol was developed to insure that the rest of the project met the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act and Archaeological Resource Protection Act.

There were several occasions when CH2MHILL contractors (acting under the direction of the EPA) did not follow the excavation protocol while working within the boundaries of recorded archaeological sites.  As the project archaeologist was not permitted to stop project activities long enough to conduct the necessary data recovery work, these instances caused unmitigated damage to significant historic and prehistoric resources in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act.

This section lists the specifics of those cases and the amount of damage done.  This map shows areas of unmitigated damage tied to the descriptions listed below.

Area 1: Water Truck Haul Road Damage

On 8-19-06, The project archaeologist told CH2MHILL that the water trucks turning around near the lake were causing damage to cultural site soils.  A request was made that the area be covered with geotextile material and base rock to protect the underlying cultural soils from water and tire damage (violation of protocol item #2).

Almost 4 weeks of water truck traffic passed before the construction contractors complied with this mitigation request.  By that time, a hole had been created in cultural soils that was 5 meters in diameter and 30cm deep.

This unmitigated activity destroyed ~6 cubic meters of cultural soil.

On 8-23-06, Tribal monitor Sandy Thomas was stung by a bee while monitoring excavation in the cul-de-sac area (by Lot 19) and had to leave her post for medical treatment.  Excavation did not stop as required by protocol and by the time the project archaeologist could get to the area, excavation had proceeded through the mine waste and 60cm into cultural soil (violation of protocol item #1).

Unknown volume of cultural soil damaged.

On 8-24-06, excavation of mine waste began before the Tribal monitor had returned from lunch break (by Lot 22).  The project archaeologist (still eating lunch nearby) stepped in to monitor the work so a work stoppage would not be necessary.  A CH2MHILL employee told the project archaeologist that he couldn?t be in the area.  The archaeologist explained to the employee that if he left, excavation would have to stop per the protocol.  The CH2MHILL employee refused to stop work when the archaeologist left the area to report the incident to the CH2MHILL on-site director.  (violation of protocol item #1).

Unknown volume of cultural soil damaged.

Area 3: North Road Waste Removal Excavation

On 8-29-06, the project archaeologist was monitoring mine waste removal in front of Lots 2, 3, and 4.  He directed the contractors to stop digging when cultural soils were encountered below the mine waste.  His directions were not followed and excavation removed both mine waste and all underlying cultural soils (violation of protocol item #7).

Unknown volume of cultural soil damaged.

Area 4: Historic Feature Area Grading (west road)

On 8-30-06, waste removal in front of Lot 23 excavated below the mine waste layer and at least 30cm into cultural soil below the original 1906 ground surface.  CH2MHILL employees admitted that they were not taking toxic chemical measurements but using only visual cues to determine the depth of the contaminated soil.  Their later measurements indicated that this pre-1906 cultural soil had no contamination (violation of protocol item #7).

Unknown volume of cultural soil damaged.

On 9-1-06, the project archaeologist had a field inspection and meeting with Mr. Emami (BIA Highway Construction Engineer) to discuss the treatment of the sensitive

historical features along the western road.  Mr. Emami expressed his concern that adequate compaction be obtained prior to road construction.  The archaeologist explained that if it became necessary to disturb the exposed historic features, then a data recovery program would need to take place before the damage was done.  After more than an hour of discussion, an agreement was made to place a thin layer of fine-grained fill over the historic features, then a layer of geotextile material that would bridge the voids, allowing the proper compaction of road fill.  It was agreed that this treatment would satisfy Mr. Emami?s concerns for road compaction and also protect the underlying historical features.

On 9-9-06, under the direction of the EPA and CH2MHILL, a road grader ripped and scraped through the historic features, destroying an area 16 meters wide by 80 meters long to a depth of 50cm.  Six of the seven pre-1906 historic features were destroyed along with an unknown amount of prehistoric cultural soil.  A buried mortar was broken and then unearthed by the activity (violation of protocol items #5 and #7).

At least 640 cubic meters of cultural soil was destroyed.  To learn more about these historic features click here.

Area 5: North Road Area Grading

On 9-9-06, Archaeologists John Holson and Kevin Bartoy of Pacific Legacy excavated through and destroyed cultural soils in an area that was not scheduled for grading (violation of protocol items #5 and #7).

Approximately 0.6 cubic meters of cultural soil was needlessly destroyed.

On 9-11-06, CH2MHILL’s grader operator asked the project archaeologist if he could grade through archaeological site soils along the northern road to level the surface for the fill trucks.  Due to the cultural soils present, the archaeologist indicated that grading through this area could not be done (see Protocol #2 and #3).  Within 20 minutes, the road grader was cutting through the area anyway, damaging cultural soils and unearthing a pestle (violation of protocol items #1, #2, and #3).

Unknown volume of cultural soil damaged.

On 9-16-06, the project archaeologist gave instructions to a CH2MHILL subcontractor not to disturb cultural soils north of the telephone pole and oak tree at the north end of Elem Drive in the areas of Lots 1A and 1B. These instructions were ignored, and the subcontractor used a dozer to cut into the bank ~50cm deep on both sides of the road (violation of protocol items #2 and #7).

Unknown volume of cultural soil damaged.

Area 7: Grading Between Lots 2 and 30

On 9-19-06, the big excavator returned to an area where mine waste had already been removed and proceeded to excavate into cultural soil to a depth of 60cm across an area 24 meters long by 14.4 meters wide.  No data recovery work was allowed prior to this disturbance (violation of protocol items #2, #5, and #7).

Approximately 207 cubic meters of cultural soil was needlessly destroyed.

In an effort to salvage a small amount of information from the damaged area, the project archaeologist told CH2MHILL contractors to place the cultural soils on top of clean fill that had already been deposited on Lot 1B.  The plan was to have the archaeological crew dry-screen through the soils to recover any artifacts before the soils were taken to the Sulphur Bank Mine waste deposit area.  

On 9-22-06, Richard Sugarek (EPA Project Director) spotted the pile of cultural soil and had it hauled to the mine waste disposal area before any screening could take place.