Source: http://www.vashonbeachcomber.com, April 28, 2015
By: Natalie Martin
After sampling dirt from more than 600 island properties, state officials will visit Vashon next Wednesday to update the public on their project to test and clean yards contaminated by the historic Asarco smelter plume.
Since the state Department of Ecology (DOE) began the massive cleanup project a few years ago, it has sampled soil from 615 Vashon properties for arsenic and lead contamination. It mapped out a service area on the southern ends of Vashon and Maury islands where contamination is the worst and where it will offer to replace yards with the highest levels or arsenic and lead.
Of the 410 properties sampled in the service area, 39, or about 10 percent, meet the criteria for cleanup, according to Amy Hargrove, a coordinator with DOE’s Yard Cleanup Program. Another 5 properties sampled in the effort to set service area boundaries also qualify for cleanup.
The state began the cleanups last fall, when contractors gave six locations about a foot of new topsoil. It plans to clean 16 more this year, and will clean any remaining yards in 2016.
At the upcoming meeting, Hargrove said state officials will explain how they recently expanded the service area to include more properties on Maury and will soon reach out to those homeowners to offer sampling.
“We wanted to make sure we offered people more sampling in that area, just to make sure we found everyone who would qualify,” she said.
The state will also give information on a new program for homeowners who have dirt with lower levels of arsenic and lead contamination. DOE has long publicized its recommendations for living with contaminated soil, such as removing shoes inside and washing hands after working in the dirt. Now, Hargrove said Yard Cleanup Program staff will also speak with individual homeowners to help them craft a plan that will work best for their households.
“We’ll talk with them about ways they can reduce exposure and find out what actions they will actually take, rather than giving them a list,” said Jill Jacobson Reitz, the Yard Cleanup Outreach Coordinator.
Hargrove noted that the state hasn’t heard from about 200 homeowners it offered soil testing. Properties in the service area can still be tested this year.
State funding for the effort on Vashon and in Tacoma comes from a settlement Asarco, the Ruston-based copper smelter, made when it filed for bankruptcy in 2005. The state received $188 million in settlement funds and expects to spend about $64 million on the yard cleanup program.
The meeting will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, at McMurray Middle School. An open house session will be from 6:30 to 7 p.m., and a presentation will begin at 7 p.m., followed by a question and answer session.