EVERETT – It’s been nearly two months since the city secured state funding to finish cleaning up the toxic Asarco smelter site in north Everett, but John Klepadlo’s back yard hasn’t changed a bit.
Dan Bates / The Herald
Even though the soil – thinly veiled by grass or exposed in flower beds – is laced with arsenic and lead, Klepadlo, 42, doesn’t expect things to change much.
“The little man versus the big corporation? I don’t think so,” he said.
Klepadlo, an electrical inspector at Boeing, and his wife, Ivy, bought their mint-green cottage in 1998 at a discounted price of $130,000 with the assurance that Asarco, a mining giant that once operated a smelter next door, would clean up the property.
Years of stop-and-go cleanup efforts ended in August when Asarco filed for bankruptcy.
The smelter’s footprint and some homes surrounding the site – all now owned by the Everett Housing Authority – were partially cleaned before the bankruptcy, but nearly two dozen privately owned lots, including Klepadlo’s, were left untouched.
“The plan was to do seven or eight (private lots) this year, and similarly for about three years,” said Clint Stanovsky, an independent environmental consultant who worked for Asarco until the bankruptcy and is now employed by the housing authority.
“Asarco wasn’t able to do that initially as a result of a strike, then the bankruptcy.”
Asarco’s bankruptcy sent Everett officials to the state Department of Ecology, where they swiftly negotiated a matching grant to complete work on the housing authority property. Once the site is cleaned, the authority will sell the property to Barclay’s North Inc., which has earmarked it for residential development.
Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said the city’s $225,000 share of the $900,000 cleanup will be earned back within four or five years in property taxes gleaned from the development.
City spokeswoman Kate Reardon said the city does not plan to assist homeowners on the fringes of the Asarco site.
The Ecology Department used state toxic control funds to clean a handful of homes near the Asarco site between 1999 and 2003, based on the level of contamination at each home, department spokesman Rick Manugian said.
In 2003, the Ecology Department turned its attention to other sites around the state that are more severely contaminated. The current plan is to return to complete the rest of the homes near the Asarco site, but the department is not contractually obligated to do so, Manugian said.
“We didn’t abandon someone,” Manugian said. “It is still our plan to clean those homes, but they’re on a list that’s based on severity and need.”
Meanwhile, toxins continue to lurk beneath Klepadlo’s steppingstones and backyard swing. He can’t say exactly how bad the contamination is at his property, but suggests that people thoroughly wash their hands and shoes after leaving any site contaminated by Asarco.
Unless Klepadlo can fork over the $40,000 housing authority officials say it costs to clean one residential property, his place is going to remain toxic. Asarco won’t likely clean any more property unless a bankruptcy judge orders it as part of a settlement.
“There is nothing we can do,” said Tom Aldrich, Asarco’s vice president for environmental affairs. “The court will not allow us to do anything on those properties. They become unsecured claims in the bankruptcy, and it’s out of Asarco’s hands.”
But Klepadlo said Asarco had plenty of time to complete the work. Asarco officials continually made promises, he said, and even asked that he tear down his deck to make way for cleanup crews. But nothing ever happened.
Nationwide, claims against Asarco have surpassed $1 billion, according to one report. The company owes $13 million to Washington state for the Everett site alone.
“Everybody’s suing Asarco,” Klepadlo said. “Even if you do win, get in line.”
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