News in Brief Environment

Mercury contamination in California to last 10,000 years

Toxic remnants of gold rush will seep into San Francisco area waterways for millennia

MERCURY RUSH Banks that line Northern California’s Yuba River contain mercury left over from the California Gold Rush. A new study predicts that the toxic metal will continue to contaminate the region’s waterways for more than 10,000 years. 

M.B. Singer 

By Jessica Shugart

- More than 2 years ago

California’s gold rush ended more than a century ago, but the contamination it caused will last thousands of years, a new analysis shows.