EPA Plans Sampling for Cleanup of Residential Areas at the Iron King Mine – Humboldt Smelter Superfund Site
Publilshed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
PHOENIX – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the next step to initiate its final cleanup plan, or Record of Decision, in Dewey-Humboldt, Ariz. Soil sampling in residential yards is needed to determine where residential cleanups can occur. In March, EPA will ask property owners for access to sample their properties. Providing access will benefit owners and tenants because it will determine whether cleanup is necessary to protect health and ensure site-related contamination does not remain on their property. Samples of shallow soils will be taken and sent to a laboratory for analysis, and the EPA will contact owners to discuss property-specific cleanup plans if cleanup is necessary. The cleanup will involve removing and replacing contaminated soil with clean soil before property restoration.
EPA has already performed cleanup actions for soil in residential properties that eliminated the highest contamination levels. The agency will now perform a final cleanup action at properties aiming to reach the lower levels of contamination set out in the Iron King Mine – Humboldt Smelter Superfund Site in its plan. This action will help ensure the long-term protection of residents’ health concerning the Superfund site.
“The residential soil and mine waste cleanups, taken together, are the key elements of EPA’s final plan for protecting residents and wildlife from harmful contamination,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “EPA remains committed to finishing our cleanup efforts for the Dewey-Humboldt community and using our Superfund program in Arizona and across the nation to safeguard public health.”
The overall cleanup will also address mine and smelter waste in non-residential areas. EPA is advancing the cleanup project’s engineering design to cleanup non-residential areas using repositories – waste-holding cells that permanently seal off contamination from infiltrating water and exposing people. This design will address the extensive tailings pile at the former mine, the wastes remaining at the former smelter, tailings and contaminated soils in the Chaparral Gulch drainage, and other contamination left behind by the mine and former smelter.
For more information on the Iron King Mine – Humboldt Smelter, visit epa.gov/superfund/ironkingmine.
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Read the full article at: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-plans-sampling-cleanup-residential-areas-iron-king-mine-humboldt-smelter-superfund
