TACOMA — About 100 property owners in Ruston and Tacoma’s north end are refusing to let Asarco LLC remove arsenic- and lead-contaminated soil from their yards, preventing the completion of a Superfund cleanup project begun 14 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
“Obviously, it is unfortunate that we have a large number of people who are refusing sampling or refusing cleanup,” said Kevin Rochlin, an Environmental Protection Agency project manager. “I cannot guarantee in the future peoples’ yards will be cleaned up.”
EPA officials have tried to persuade property owners for several years to participate in the cleanup program. It’s unclear why they won’t, Rochlin said.
“We are going to make one last attempt to contact all the refusals over the next year,” he said. But the cost burden is likely to increase as participation dwindles. “It is a lot cheaper and easier to do multiple yards simultaneously,” he said.
Asarco’s copper smelter shut down in 1985. Superfund contractors have demolished all the buildings, and the EPA has agreed to allow the Point Ruston development company to finish the onsite cleanup.
But surrounding residential properties remain Asarco’s responsibility. The goal of the project is to remove and replace dirt in about 1,500 yards, rights of way and alleys near the former smelter, Rochlin said.
That’s about three times as many parcels as EPA estimated in 1993 when they planned the project that was supposed to take seven years to complete. But the cost of the project so far — $20 million — has been considerably less than the estimate of between $60 million and $80 million.
Whether the presence of arsenic- and lead-tainted soils affects Ruston-area property values is unclear. State real estate disclosure law requires sellers to inform buyers of environmental contamination at the time of sale.
“I can’t imagine why anybody is reluctant to have it done,” said Jeff Warnke, owner of a rental house where workers this past summer removed several inches of backyard soil. The result was fantastic, Warnke said, “like a landscape company came and did your yard for free.”
Another North Tacoma property owner, Cheryl Perkins, said she had been reluctant to participate. “I don’t like dirt flying around,” she said.
Eventually, the couple agreed to schedule the work after Labor Day. “This is a brand-new beginning for us,” Cheryl Perkins said. “We love it.”
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