$22 million for B&L Woodwaste cleanup

The state of Washington has received roughly $188 million to help repair environmental damage caused by mining giant ASARCO, with $22 million allocated for cleanup of a site along the border of Fife and Milton.

It is the largest payout in the history of the state’s Model Toxics Control Act, the state’s “Superfund” law that Washington voters approved in 1988.

Last month, the U.S. District Court in Texas affirmed an earlier bankruptcy court approval of a reorganization plan filed by ASARCO’s parent company, Grupo Mexico. The plan includes payments to creditors seeking funds for environmental damages, including Washington.

On Dec. 9, funds from the case were transferred to the state treasury. Most of the money then was deposited in the state’s Cleanup Settlement Account. About $16 million was deposited in the State Toxics Cleanup Account to reimburse the state’s past costs related to ASARCO sites.

“The outcome in this case means ASARCO is being held responsible for the damages its past practices caused to our communities and our environment,” said Ted Sturdevant, director of the Washington Department of Ecology.

Current plans call for Ecology to use the funds to clean up contamination at former ASARCO sites, such as the B&L Woodwaste landfill, located just north of 20th Street East and west of Milton Way. This site contains woodwaste, mixed with soil and ASARCO slag, originating from log sort yards in Commencement Bay, which was taken to this site for disposal in the mid-1970s to early 1980s. The slag leached arsenic into the groundwater.  The landfill was capped in 1993 as required by a consent decree. Recently, it was discovered that the capped site was releasing arsenic into nearby wetlands.

In response to this finding, Ecology entered into a consent decree with Murray Pacific Corporation, which required the construction of a sub-surface wall around the landfill, pumping and treatment of wetland groundwater and other remedial measures. Murray Pacific developed an engineering design report outlining the details of the first phase of these required actions. The project will include construction of an underground barrier. The wall will contain contaminated soils and keep groundwater from leaching out of the landfill.

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