Groups meet to review cleanup

The commissioners met with representatives involved in the EPA’s cleanup of Superior last month and decided that sometime this spring, in March or April, a meeting with the public would be held to go over what’s been accomplished, results and what still needs to be completed.

Last month at the meeting before the commissioners, those involved with the cleanup project gave the commissioners a glance at where they were with the cleanup project and a review what events took place this last summer.

Les Smith, project manager from the EPA, said that 31 properties were remediated last summer by the emergency response group.

In addition to the properties that were remediated, several more properties were also tested. During the summer of 2010, 297 properties were sampled. Of those, 277 sampled required no further action falling below 400 ppm (parts per million) in the lead/ arsenic screening. Sixteen homes, or 5.4 percent of those sampled, need further evaluation to determine if the property needs remediated. Four homes were found to be of high risk, with readings indicating that they were above 3000 ppm.

“We feel confident we captured most of the contamination,” Smith said. “And the good news is that 93 percent of the homes we sampled were clean.”

Smith said that when they came back last summer to the area they tried to sample what they hadn’t sampled previously and also sampled alleyways that were close to residential properties where people might be exposed.

“Since we had the personnel, we wanted to check,” Smith said.

Property owners had to grant access to the properties that were sampled. Smith said they followed up with those who they didn’t have access to in 2009 for whatever reason. He said that they have sampled around 95 to 97 percent of the properties in Superior. Smith added that when they came in their main criteria was to sample those that they knew people would be exposed to.

Currently, the analytical results are being validated and will be made available at the meeting in the spring.

“The plan next year is to address those four properties that were found to be at high risk and any other properties that might require immediate attention,” Smith said. “Our plan is also to start taking what has been placed in the temporary repository out to the permanent repository.”

Smith said that they have identified a spot out at Wood Gulch where they hope to build the permanent repository.

“With that said, we’ve initiated a study to determine if that particular area will be suitable to hold waste,” Smith said.

Darryl Reed, from the Department of Environmental Quality, said that the piece of property will be transferred from the Forest Service to the Department of Natural Resources. He said that the DNRC does not wish to hold ownership of the property with a repository on it and so the property would then be transferred to the DEQ.

“There’s preliminary discussion taking place between lawyers about the property transfer,” Reed said.

Smith said that although the land is still not in the DEQ’s hand, they are moving forward with the assumption that the piece of property at Wood Gulch will be used.

Of course, if everything comes through, the repository will still need to be constructed as well. Once the repository is more finalized, institutional controls will also have to be discussed and put into place. Institutional controls will help manage what happens if someone finds contamination later on. Smith said that they are currently running out of room with the temporary repository. He said that he estimates there is about 15,000 cubic yards of soil currently in the temporary repository.

Smith said that in addition to the town, which is operable unit one, they are hoping to start investigating the mine site and creek area, which is defined as operable unit two.

Peggy Stevens, Mineral County Health Director, said that the Flat Creek area is a huge concern for her as people still go up there for recreational activities.

“It is an area with one of the highest potentials for exposure. People are still hiking and camping up there,” she said.

Last summer, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) also came in and did an exposure investigation. Dan Strausbaugh, senior regional representative for ATSDR, told the commissioners in December that they tested people within a snapshot of 20-48 hours of exposure time. A total of 63 adults and children participated during the exposure investigation. Strausbaugh said that the results will be added to the overall health report that they are compiling. He said that he expects a full report to be completed sometime in February or March and should be available in concordance with the public meeting later in the spring.

“At that time, we will be available to answer questions that the public may have,” Strausbaugh said.

The meeting also touched on the issue of the use of local contractors. Smith reiterated that they are going to do their best to use local contractors. Again, he explained that they were sort of tied in last summer with the time sensitive removal. Smith expects that his part of the remedial action, which is not time sensitive, will have more flexibility of using local contractors.