Meeting scheduled to discuss Superfund work
A public meeting is scheduled for today, Wednesday, May 12, which intends to discuss the Flat Creek Iron Mountain Mine and Superfund Site. The Mineral County Health Department (MCHD) has invited the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSRD) to host the meeting for Superior residents.
An open house will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., the public meeting will commence. The event is will be held at Superior High School in the multi-purpose room. The meeting is scheduled until 8:00 p.m. Following the meeting, there will be an opportunity for questions.
Information will be provided on the results from 200 soil samples as well as on soil sampling that is being planned for this summer. The organizations will also talk about yard clean-up, community involvement with the task and health screenings related to the mine site.
In the December 23 issue of the Mineral Independent Diane Hammer, from the EPA, said that in 2002 the EPA performed some removal action, but when they returned and ran more samples in 2007, they found high levels of lead at some residences. Last summer, they ran tests on over 300 yards and plan to sample 200 more this coming summer.
"The properties we find that have a higher percentage of lead we hope to start cleaning up this summer," she said.
Back on December 9, the bankruptcy case filed by Asarco back in 2005 was also finally concluded. The company is going to pay all the claims approved by the bankruptcy court in full with interest applied. It is highly unusual for a claim to be paid in full, but with the price of copper up and some other twists in the case, all claims will be paid. Asarco placed the property that it still owned into a trust and will also pay $1.9 million into the trust for the cleanup of the area around Flat Creek. The company will pay close to $2 million directly to the state for the off-site property that it previously owned, but sold off. Finally, the U.S. Forest service was awarded $588,000 for their claim that contamination had washed down into the National Forest areas.
Superior Mayor Mike Wood said he was glad that the case had finally settled so clean-up efforts in residential areas wouldn't be slowed down. Wood said it is important to get the areas up around Flat Creek cleaned up so that once the town is cleaned up it won't be re-contaminated from runoff, thus taking care of the whole problem.
Funds to clean-up Superior residential areas will come from the federal governments Superfund money according to Hammer, as Superior was added to the National Priority List back in September.
The contamination of yards is the result of people using mine waste from Iron Mountain and Flat Creek as filler for building driveways and filling yards as the material compacted well for filler. Joe Vranka, Superior Superfund branch chief, said that this had taken place over the last 100 years, which has now been responsible for the contamination of residential areas. He also said some of the contamination might also very well be from water runoff from Flat Creek.
The meeting should be information for residents and attendance is encouraged.