Yerington community leader Peggy Pauly wrote the following column in the Winter 2005 Bristlecone newsletter:

My house is located off the northwest boundary of the Yerington Mine. Soon after receiving an October 2004 update prepared by BLM, NDEP, and EPA, I began writing letters and reading about the history of the mine. I have learned some troubling facts. I have been told the mine has had knowledge of high radiation levels in their evaporation ponds since 1979. The state has been aware of this since 1984 when a monitoring well on the site had high levels of radiation. And as early as 1982 the state ordered the site to be monitored.

The EPA has been asking for testing and surveys to be done since 2001. Yet even though the mine site is polluted and contaminated with radiation, there have been no stations set in our community to monitor the air we are breathing. At the end of last year, the Atlantic Richfield Company (owned by British Petroleum) installed 6 air monitoring stations on the mine site. We already know it is contaminated. We want monitoring in the community.

The BLM workers are protected on the site and they have to follow strict safety guidelines, but the residents living around the mine site have no protection.

In October, with help from Great Basin Resource Watch, some of our residents began to organize a Community Action Group. Our first meeting had about 27 people in attendance. Our second meeting, December 8, 2004, was standing room only with 68 people. Our first action was to get Governor Guinn to request the EPA become the lead agency. He did this on December 10, 2004.

We continue to write letters asking for all the tests and proper evaluations to be done to ensure the safety of our community. We have gotten good feedback from Jim Sickles, at the EPA. He has already met with six people from our Action Group to address our concerns. The good news is, he is concerned about out community and willing to do all that is necessary to ensure our safety, but the bad news is, it will take a lot of time. When dealing with something so serious, you don't feel you have time. We want the answers NOW!

I never realized what a battle it is for residents in a small community impacted by a mine to just get tests showing we are not being affected by an invisible threat. I personally have been called a liar and sworn at. People have thrown flyers back in my face. But, at the same time, I am told heartbreaking stories of mine workers who died awfully young and about the illnesses in their families.

We sent out informal health surveys to households living around the site boundary and the numbers of illnesses seem terribly high, even family pets are sick with tumors, horses ill with cancer. I feel the NDEP and the BLM have failed the Yerington residents. Our group will continue to fight to make the agencies involved recognize the health and safety of our community is their top priority. We do not plan to rest until Atlantic Richfield has cleaned up all the contamination.