EVERETT — The Tacoma mayor’s thumbs-up may hasten the cleanup of a north Everett neighborhood.
Mayor Bill Baarsma endorsed an Asarco plan to deposit tainted soil from a north Everett neighborhood at a toxic waste dump in Ruston, adjacent to Tacoma.
Asarco’s plan to haul 25,000 cubic yards — more than 5,000 truckloads of soil contaminated with arsenic — from Everett to Ruston requires approval of the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is overseeing the cleanup of Ruston, site of a former smelter.
But EPA officials have said they would not approve the plan if residents of Ruston and neighboring Tacoma oppose it. Trucks must travel through Tacoma to reach Ruston, which is at the tip of Point Defiance. This year, residents of both cities debated the issue and grudgingly accepted the plan.
Ruston Mayor Kim Wheeler backed the plan. But Baarsma expressed doubts. However, a week ago, the EPA received a letter from Baarsma endorsing the company’s plan.
"It’s the first time we have officially heard from the city of Tacoma saying this is OK for them," said Elliott Furst, attorney for the state Department of Ecology, which is overseeing the cleanup of the Everett site.
Tacoma’s endorsement could persuade EPA officials to approve Asarco’s plan. Approval could hasten plans to clean up the Ruston and north Everett sites, as well as save the financially struggling company up to $5 million in toxic waste disposal fees. The savings could be applied nationwide to another two dozen contaminated sites that Asarco’s must also clean up.
Hauling dirt to Ruston would be cheaper than sending it out of the state for disposal, Asarco spokesman Tom Aldrich said.
After the Ruston smelter closed in 1985, Asarco built a toxic-waste landfill there that can safely hold 250,000 cubic yards of soil. Most of the space will be taken up by contaminated soil from the Ruston site, but there is enough room to dump 25,000 cubic yards of soil from the 10-acre Everett site, Asarco officials said.
EPA approval of the plan to haul dirt from Everett to Ruston may trigger an additional benefit. This year, the EPA has $18.6 million in cleanup funds to distribute to two dozen U.S. cleanup sites — each of which is in a contest for the money, said Kevin Rochlin, the EPA’s Ruston project manager.
If the EPA approves Asarco’s plan, Everett and Ruston could receive a chunk of the money since cleanup sites that are ready to go are more likely to receive funds first.
"We could easily use all of it for the project," Rochlin said.
Asarco is scheduled to clean up the Everett site by October 2004. Plans call for removing arsenic-laden soil from the 10-acre area and covering it with 2 feet of clean topsoil. Area residents say they have waited more than 12 years for the cleanup. In the late 1990s, Asarco demolished 21 homes at the site of the former smelter, which closed in 1912. The Ecology Department has been in court since 1998 trying to get Asarco to clean up the site.
In January, Asarco and its Mexican parent company, Grupo Mexico, bowed to the U.S. government and agreed to set up a $100 million trust fund for environmental cleanup of Asarco’s two dozen U.S. sites. This year, the EPA distributed $12.5 million from the fund. An EPA decision on the soil removal plan and the distribution of 2004 funds is expected in January.
Reporter Janice Podsada:
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