Public Invited To Comment On Washington Smelter

Residents of Everett, Wash., as well as residents of the surrounding area, are invited to comment on a proposal by Asarco Inc. for the final cleanup of arsenic-contaminated soil on property where its former smelter used to stand.

Asarco wants to remove soil contaminated with 150 parts per million or more of arsenic where, nearly 100 years ago, the company produced arsenic and arsenic-based products. Two feet of clean fill would replace the removed soil and cover the area.  The land would be left as a grass-covered slope to be sold for residential development.

A public-comment period on Asarco's cleanup plan begins Dec. 30 and ends on

Jan. 28, 2003.

Washington’s Department of Ecology will conduct a public meeting Jan. 16 in Everett.

The company also proposes to remove soil containing elevated levels of arsenic from about 30 additional residential properties outside and to the south and west of the fenced area, but located on other parts of the former smelter site. Asarco owns 14 of the homes.

Asarco proposes to haul the soil removed from the Everett Smelter to the company's Tacoma smelter cleanup site, where it would be placed in facilities constructed there to hold much greater volumes of similar soil from the Tacoma smelter cleanup. Asarco has said that carrying out its proposal depends upon obtaining approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to accept the soil at the Tacoma smelter site. Asarco is working with the EPA and the cities of Tacoma and Ruston on this aspect of the proposal.

As an interim measure last June, Ecology ordered Asarco to remove an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated with 3,000 or more ppm of arsenic from the fenced area.  The order was an interim measure to protect the public and the environment from high levels of metals at the site.

"We would welcome final cleanup on this part of the site," said Ecology's site manager, David South. "But if Asarco's proposed plan can't be carried out, the company still must remove the most highly contaminated soil, as we've ordered."