Published October
2002
Opportunities
eyed
for former Superfund site
By
Kate Reardon
Herald Writer
It’s hard to say
if 147 acres of land on the Tulalip Reservation that once held as much
as 4 million tons of junk will become home to inmates, a golf course or
athletic fields.
But talks could become
more focused now that the former landfill no longer poses a significant
threat to the public or the environment.
In September, the
site was taken off the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund
list. Cost of the cleanup was $34 million.
Tulalip Tribal leaders
and county officials are exploring the idea of building a complex that
includes a new jail and offices for attorneys or courtrooms, said John
McCoy, the Tulalip Tribes’ executive director of governmental affairs.
The Tulalips are
also considering athletic fields or a golf course, McCoy said.
“We’ve got a few
ideas, and we’re working on them,” McCoy said. “We’re in preliminary discussions
with the county on this property. Because the designation has been lifted,
we need to sit down and decide what that future use may be.”
McCoy said a plan
could be in place within a year.
Susan Neely, Snohomish
County public safety program manager, said the county has talked with
tribal leaders about the need for a post-trial county jail where inmates
serving a year or less would stay.
“We’d like to explore
it further,” she said. “We’d have to look at what it would cost us and
at our financial plan. I do want to stress this is very much just talking
and no commitment.”
What’s ideal about
the cleanup at the landfill site, McCoy said, is it is not in anyone’s
back yard. It is on a finger of land on the Tulalip Reservation between
Ebey and Steamboat sloughs and west of I-5.
“It’s out there by
itself, surrounded on two sides by water,” he said.
Access could come
from a new I-5 overpass, McCoy said, adding the tribes have notified the
state Department of Transportation of the desire to have an overpass built
there.
Ultimately, the tribes
will need the EPA’s blessing before anything is built at the former landfill,
said Loren McPhillips, EPA Superfund site manager. And buildings would
likely be limited to one-story because of the landfill cap.
The EPA placed the
landfill on its Superfund list in 1995 because of concerns that harsh
contaminants such as arsenic and aluminum were leaking into surrounding
wetlands and sloughs leading to the Snohomish River, McPhillips said.
Contaminated sites are listed when they pose the highest risks to human
health and the environment, he said.
The Seattle Disposal
Co. leased the land from the Tulalip Tribes and operated the landfill
from 1964 to 1979, when the EPA requested it be shut down.
As much as 4 million
tons of mixed commercial and industrial waste was dumped there.
The cleanup involved
five lawsuits, congressional investigations and settlements with more
than 200 entities responsible for dumping the trash. About $20 million
was garnered from settlements.
Cleanup included
regrading 500,000 cubic yards of soil and waste; importing 1 million yards
of soil, sand and topsoil; and installing more than 21 million square
feet of liners and capping materials.
That cleanup was
completed in October 2000. The site will be monitored for at least 30
years. As for the future of the site?
“We have plenty of
opportunity, and all the options are being explored,” McCoy said.
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