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EPA Orders Asarco To Continue Clean-Up
Release Date: 3/5/2002
Contact Information: Lee Marshall
marshall.lee@epamail.epa.gov
(206) 553-2723
March 5, 2002 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 02-12
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency today ordered Asarco to clean-up arsenic- and lead-contaminated sediments near the former Asarco smelter site and in the Yacht Basin area of Commencement Bay.
EPA issued a Unilateral Order today after the EPA and Asarco failed to reach a negotiated agreement on how the company would proceed with its clean-up obligations. The order compels Asarco to perform the sediment clean-up or face penalties. Remedies for the sediments include capping 18 acres of contaminated marine sediment in the Nearshore/Offshore Area and dredging 15.5 acres of contaminated sediments in the Yacht Basin.
Asarco is liable for over $60 million in projected costs for cleaning-up the highly contaminated smelter site and the Ruston and north Tacoma neighborhoods that are contaminated with arsenic, lead and other heavy metals from the company= s smelter operations. The company has legal obligations under a consent decree for clean-up of the smelter site and the Ruston and North Tacoma neighborhoods.
"Before we issued this order we spent a year and a half hammering out an agreement with Asarco on the scope and schedule of the sediment clean-up." said Michelle Pirzadeh of EPA's Superfund Office. "This order formally lays out the requirements to get the sediment work done. Keeping the Tacoma clean-up going is a high priority for us."
John Iani, EPA Region 10 Administrator said, "Thus far, cleanup of the smelter has been a model for government and industry working together. We expect the good working relationship with Asarco's Tacoma personnel will continue."
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