State to cast wide net for Asarco smelter pollution

The next big push to clean up more of the toxic mess created by the former Asarco smelter in Ruston is about to begin.

The state Department of Ecology last month rolled out a draft cleanup plan to tackle the highest levels of arsenic and lead spewed through the air over a 1,000-square-mile area in Pierce, Thurston, King and Kitsap counties, which is the largest contaminated site in the state.

Thurston County is not likely to see state-funded soil sampling and cleanups in this phase.

The draft plan features a new yard sampling and cleanup program for Ruston, parts of north and west Tacoma, University Place and the southern ends of Vashon and Maury islands.

Ecology officials concede the tainted soil is so extensive and cleanup costs so high that not all of the pollution will be recovered.

“We’re only looking at the high zones of contamination,” said Ecology’s Hannah Aoyagi, project public involvement coordinator.

Toxic concentrations of arsenic and lead are a health risk to people, especially children. Arsenic is linked to heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. Lead can cause developmental delays and behavior problems in children.

About 18,000 developed properties and 2,000 undeveloped parcels are slated for cleanup in the draft plan, beginning in 2013.

The Ecology cleanup standards used on the targeted sites will be more than 10 times more strict than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency used in the first round of cleanups in the Ruston area.

But even at Ecology’s cleanup level of 20 parts per million for arsenic, the cancer risk for people exposed to the contaminated soil is 30 per 1 million people, or about 30 times higher than the strictest cleanup possible under state law.

To date, about 2,000 properties, including schoolyards, parks, residential yards, vacant lots and rights of way, have been cleaned up in the EPA Superfund site surrounding the defunct Asarco smelter, EPA project manager Kevin Rochlin said.

He said the EPA decision to set arsenic cleanup levels at 230 parts per million, compared with the 20 ppm Ecology will use, was driven in large part by intense resistance to the cleanup from Ruston residents at the time.

“Ecology is dealing with a new citizenry in the Ruston area,” Rochlin said. “We’re totally supportive of what they’re trying to do.”

One such newcomer to the Asarco Superfund neighborhood is Chris Green, who, along with his wife and 15-month-old daughter live in a Defiance Street home they purchased two years ago.

Tests of their yard in 1994 revealed arsenic levels in the 100 to 200 ppm range – not high enough for the EPA cleanup, but well within the pollution level Ecology wants to tackle.

“Depending on the size and scale of it, we would welcome a yard cleanup,” Green, 30, said. “On our block there are a lot of young families new to the neighborhood. I think there’s an attitude of wanting to be good environmental stewards.”

The Citizens for a Healthy Bay, a Tacoma-based environmental group, supports Ecology’s effort to expand the soil sampling and cleanup program in and beyond the Ruston area.

“It’s a very positive and necessary step,” said Leslie Ann Rose, the group’s senior policy adviser. “There’s not enough money to go around, so the first priority should be the areas with heavy use by children.”

John Hildenbrand, a geoscientist with Robinson Noble Inc. of Tacoma, said the Ecology cleanup plan will bring more certainty to what developers need to do to prepare a site for construction or redevelopment.

“The problems associated with the smelter plume have already been in place a long time,” he said. “A well-defined pathway to cleanup is ultimately a good thing.”

In Thurston County, there have been no cleanups targeted by EPA or Ecology, county environmental health specialist Gerald Tousley said.

The pollution map based on wind dispersal of pollutants shows that a large area north and east of Lacey was dusted by the smelter pollution over the decades of plant operation.

But 2007 soil samples from 21 child care centers and 10 schools in north Thurston County showed no signs of elevated arsenic or lead levels, according to a Ecology fact sheet.

However, North Thurston Public Schools has decided to test four future school sites for lead and arsenic in the northeast part of the school district, said Courtney Schrieve, district spokeswoman.

“It’s just to ensure student safety – we don’t want any surprises,” she said.

Thurston County has a two-year, $15,000 grant from Ecology, using Asarco settlement funds to reach out to schools and child care centers about simple steps to reduce exposure to potentially polluted soil, environmental educator Jane Mountjoy-Venning said.

The message, which is also used throughout the Tacoma Smelter Plume area, includes: Remove shoes and brush off before coming inside, keep your hands washed, cover exposed soils with mulch, and clean vegetables from the garden before eating them.

John Dodge: 360-754-5444
jdodge@theolympian.com

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

The state Department of Ecology has scheduled public meetings to discuss the next phase of cleanup of soil pollution from the defunct Asarco smelter in Ruston. Sites of the 6:30 p.m. meetings:

• Nov. 9, McMurray Middle School cafeteria, 9329 Cemetery Road S.W., Vashon Island.

• Nov. 16, Curtis High School cafeteria, 8425 40th St. W., University Place.

• Dec. 6, Des Moines Activity Center, 2045 S. 216th St., Des Moines.

A public comment period for the draft cleanup plan runs through Dec. 20. The plan is available for review at:

• Vashon and University Place libraries and the Tacoma Public Library’s Main, Swasey and Wheelock branches.

• Ecology’s Tacoma Smelter Plume website at www.tinyurl.com/tacoma-smelter.

Comments on the plan should be sent to: Cynthia Walker, Washington Department of Ecology, Toxics Cleanup Program, PO Box 47775, Olympia, WA 98504-7600, or Cynthia.Walker@ecy.wa.gov.