Washington’s Department of Ecology is continuing its multi-year effort to clean up yards contaminated by lead and arsenic from Tacoma’s former ASARCO copper smelter, and officials are holding a meeting on Vashon about the ongoing work on Tuesday, June 14.
The cleanup has been underway since 2013, and soil replacement in high-use areas of yards began in 2014. The state’s program replaces soil in high-use areas such as gardens, and up to one-quarter acre. Ecology’s Jill Reitz said that a total of 617 yards on Vashon have been sampled. Since 2014, 44 island yards have been identified as needing soil replaced — soil samples came back over 100 ppm for arsenic or over 500 ppm for lead — but only 21 have been cleaned up, and nine more are set to be cleaned in the summer of 2017. This summer, Ecology is focusing on replacing 80 yards in North Tacoma. The department is also wrapping up its free soil sampling this year for yards on southern Vashon-Maury Island for homeowners who want to know if they qualify for free soil replacement. Ecology will continue to offer free sampling on the island for educational purposes.
Ecology officials will also discuss preventative measures and how to minimize exposure to the chemicals in the soil.
“There are lots of new people moving to the island unfamiliar with the level of contamination in the soil,” Public-Health Seattle King County Health Educator Denise Sharify said last week. “Many longtime islanders don’t want to talk about it, but it’s still something that exists in many places.”
The ASARCO smelter operated on the Tacoma waterfront for nearly 100 years and spewed arsenic, lead and other heavy metals into the surrounding environment as far south as Olympia, north to West Seattle and most heavily inTacoma, southern Vashon Island and Maury Island. When ASARCO declared bankruptcy in 2009, the state was given more than $94 million to clean up contaminated yards. However, Reitz said that funding will eventually run out, so the discussion is now turning to future plans, including how to continue work without the settlement funding.
“The next steps for the project will be gathering feedback and ideas about how to continue, so potentially working with real estate agents to talk about the issue and ensure that home buyers are aware,” she said.
The state has four programs dedicated to the plume issues: yard sampling and cleanup; outreach and education; soil safety, which focuses on children and how to protect them when playing outside, and technical assistance, working with home developers to replace the soil before homes are built.
Meanwhile, King County is conducting a similar, but separate cleanup project at the Maury Island Natural Area. The former gravel mine on the southeast portion of Maury has been hit hard by ASARCO contamination: Ecology lists the area’s soil as having more than 100 ppm of heavy metal contaminants, well within the threshold of needing soil replaced. King County officials will hold a meeting on Vashon on June 20 to talk about short-term action in the area.
Under the supervision of Ecology, but without funds from the bankruptcy settlement, the county’s parks department is expecting to tackle the area’s trail system by topping some trails with gravel, closing smaller, social trails and attempting to build official trails away from the most heavily contaminated areas.
“Obviously this is a huge project with a very long remediation process,” King County Parks and Recreation spokesman Doug Williams said. “It’s a pretty unique situation.”
Williams said the county would also like to build a hand-washing and shoe-washing station where walkers and runners can clean off contaminated dirt before heading home.
“That’s a quick sketch of what we’re going to be talking about,” Williams said. “We will certainly lean on (Ecology) and the Department of Natural Resources for their expertise.”
Public meetings
Two public meetings about two separate Asarco cleanup efforts will be held on Vashon in the coming weeks.
The first meeting will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14, at McMurray Middle School. Representatives from the Washington State Department of Ecology will discuss yard cleanups and future plans for safety around contaminated soil.
King County will hold a meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday, June 20, at the Vashon Library to discuss plans for cleanup at the Maury Island Natural Area. Representatives from the county parks department will be in attendance.
