Another EPA cleanup of contaminated residential soil is taking place in Tacoma Washington. A fact sheet along with Q & A's is available by clicking here .


An area in or near Tacoma has been contaminated by the former Asarco Smelter in Ruston/North Tacoma. Surrounding areas have been contaminated with arsenic and lead. Areas closest to the plant will be cleaned up by the EPA with Superfund money. Outside that area, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology in the fact sheet) is performing the cleanup. The Ecology is probably similar to our NYSDEC.

The fact sheet and Q & A's provide a good explanation of the remediation solutions and the justifications, based on risk, of those selected solutions.

Click below (Read Full Article) for a review of those solutions.
The cleanup for arsenic will be:
Any area requiring cleanup will be clean to 20 PPM of arsenic.

However there are different levels of current contamination which will trigger a cleanup. These triggers are:

1. Child play areas (schools, playgrounds, child care centers, parks, camps and multi-family public housing):
   Areas with arsenic levels over 20 PPM average with a maximum of 40 PPM for any sampled point.



2. Residential yards cleaned up by the State: Any arsenic level over 100 PPM



3. Residential yards cleaned up by the EPA: Any arsenic level over 250 PPM.

There are trigger points for lead as well.

The fact sheet provides justification based on health risk for these action levels stating they fall within the guidelines of risk level between 1 in a million and 1 in ten thousand health incidences.

One Q & A asked the Ecology why the trigger for residential yards was set at 100 PPM instead of 20. The answer was they didn't have the money. In other words there is no big corporation like FMC to cover the cost. However the risk still fell within guidelines.

In contrast it is expected that the NYSDEC and NYSDOH will require residential yards in Middleport to be cleaned to 20 PPM but with a trigger of 20 PPM for any sampled point (no average).