Wa: Boundary is expanded in search for arsenic and lead pollution

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Boundary is expanded in search for arsenic and lead pollution

Friday, January 16, 2004

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/156914_asarco16.html

OLYMPIA -- The search for arsenic and lead pollution from an

old Tacoma-area copper smelter is expanding into Thurston and

Kitsap counties, Seattle, parts of northern King County, the Gig

Harbor Peninsula and south Pierce County, the state Department

of Ecology said Wednesday.

" We expect to find fairly low concentrations of arsenic and lead

because the boundary of contamination will be some distance

from the original smelter stack in Ruston, " said n Abbett,

the department's project manager for soil studies in the smelter

area.

Asarco, the last company that owned the smelter, also produced

arsenic before shutting down in 1985. The two main

contaminants at the site are arsenic, a cancer-causing byproduct

of copper smelting, and lead, which can slow brain development

in children.

A one-mile radius surrounding the smelter was declared a federal

Superfund site in 1983. The U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency is overseeing the cleanup, which officials say could cost

as much as $200 million by the time it's complete.

Ecology and local health departments will ask property owners

for permission to sample soil on sites that have not been

disturbed since the smelter began operating in the 1890s,

including forested areas and some residential lots.

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