Green

Holley family healing

Last Wednesday, three members of the Holley family, who own and operate HolleyFamily Farms, were involved in a two-truck accident on highway 50. Four people were killed, including Ford Tucker, 18, of Fallon and three Fernley residents, Noel (Mike) Sotka, 52, Troy Sibson, 47, and Douglas (Jason) Counterman, 30. Robert Holley and his 9-year-old daughter, Anna, received minor injuries and were able to go home. The Holley’s son Daniel, 19, is currently in the burn unit at University of California, Davis, where he is being treated for burn wounds.

One cow was killed and seven were injured. Fourteen were taken to Fallon and treated by a veterinarian. Two of the Holley’s trucks were also destroyed in the accident.

Local farmers have organized a donation fund for the Holley family, as well as volunteer work parties at the Holley Farm. Donations can be made at Wells Fargo Bank to the Holley Family Farms Donation Fund, account number 815083344, or through PayPal, http://tinyurl.com/hffdonationfund. Work parties will be held on Aug. 23, Aug. 30, Sept. 6 and Sept. 13 at 9 a.m. at the Holley Farm in Dayton. Each work day will be limited to 15 people. To RSVP or arrange a carpool, email amber@greatbasinfood.coop.

Tahoe afloat

The sixteenth annual Lake Tahoe Summit helped to establish some bipartisan goals for the future of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding ecology, even as conflict exists between Nevada and California legislatures. Held at Edgewood Tahoe, much of the summit focused on the need for public-private funding to plan for Tahoe’s future after federal funding decreases.

In attendance were Sen. Dean Heller, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki.

The officials each issued statements at the end of the summit. Brown’s read, in part, “This year’s summit reminds us that the health of the Lake is dependent on what we do on the land. After years of debate, California and Nevada are finally getting their act together. The prospects for Lake Tahoe are bright.”

But the debate over the vote to remove Nevada from Tahoe Regional Planning Agency suggests that conflict still looms. For more about the fight over the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, see “Water fight” in News, page six.

—Ashley Hennefer

ashleyh@newsreview.com

ECO-EVENT

Great Basin Brewing Company, along with NevadaGrown, will host the Great Basin Local Nevada Farmers Market every Thursday in September, starting on Sept. 6, 4:30-7:30 p.m. Nevada farmers will be share fresh produce, and the brewery will host live music on its outdoor stage, handcrafted local brews, and popular dishes using fresh and local ingredients.

Got an eco-event? Contact ashleyh@newsreview.com. Visit www.facebook.com/RNRGreen for more.

PHOTO/ASHLEY HENNEFER

“Stop open pit mining” signs can be seen on houses throughout Storey County.

Digging deeper

Comstock Mining Inc.

Despite community opposition, Comstock Mining Inc. has begun hauling ore on Route 342 (“Mineshafted,” July 26). But that doesn’t mean the Comstock by Residents Association will keep quiet about it.

Ashley Recently, Storey County officials decided not to enforce the open pit

Hennefer mining permit, essentially allowing CMI to “circumvent the BLM ashleyh@ [Bureau of Land Management],” says Steve Funk, spokesperson for the newsreview.com Comstock Residents Association. “Obviously, given the state of the economy of Northern Nevada, given the desire for jobs to appear out of nowhere and to appear without repercussion, counties are eager to do something about it,” Funk says. “But this is a poor tradeoff. There are bigger consequences here. When you get down to the numbers, the true economic engine is tourism, which is what has sustained this community for over 100 years.” According to testimonies from Storey County residents, the ore hauling has already made life difficult. CMI is hauling on the main route, 342, rather than the designated truck route, 341. The company has been detouring visitors to take 341, essentially bypassing the local businesses which depend on that traffic. Will Rose, owner of Doodads Cybercafe and Emporium, says that he and his wife were depending on the tourists in town for Hot August Nights, but the detour prevented any possible business. “I’m a fourth-generation Nevadan and my family was in mining,” Rose said in a statement. “I’m not anti-mining. You can’t bullshit me on the greatness of mining, I get it, but you can’t just let these guys do anything they want. Just look at the history … in places like Weed Heights or outside of Ely where there are just huge scars … and I’ve never known any of them to really clean up after themselves, despite their promises.” The amount of dirt and dust stirred by the hauling is also in violation of the community’s requests. “They promised they would cover those trucks,” Funk says. “But if you go up there and look, only about one in six trucks are covered. The county won’t hold them to any standards.” The CRAhas taken their concerns to the Nevada legislature. “The community has been working with the Nevada congressional legislation, talking to them about our concerns about the local ecology, and our concerns about the encroachment of big business in small communities,” says Funk. Comstock Mining Inc. owns more than 6,000 acres of property in the Comstock, and is expected to develop new mining projects in neighboring counties throughout the next few years. “They have a plan to tear up the Virginia range all the way from Silver City to Dayton,” Funk says. “We’ve had this happen before. Sites that were mined in the early part of the last century were left in very toxic conditions. That was the same idea Houston [Oil and Minerals Co.] had. Then the price of gold tanked so they left. That’s the history of the way these businesses operate. There’s plenty of ethical mining happening in Nevada, but this isn’t it.” Ω