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Show Superfund rebuttal goes to Washington discharging into the waterway. That data was was used by the EPA when it named Prospector to Superfund. The new tests, however, showed the original test was in error and no tailings are discharging into Silver Creek. The technical part of the city's report will show results of analysis by a private environmental consulting con-sulting firm indicating that Prospector Prospec-tor should not be listed, Loble said. Using' the EPA's criteria for evaluation evalua-tion of potential environmental hazards, known as the Hazard Ranking Rank-ing System.the Denver laboratories of Dames and Moore found Prospector Prospec-tor scored too low for Superfund listing. According to EPA standards, a site must receive a score of more than 28.4 to be considered for the Superfund list. EPA rated Prospector Prospec-tor at 38.4. The Dames and Moore analysis, however, scored Prospector Prospec-tor in the low 20s under a worst-case scenario and lower than 10 in a best-case best-case situation, according to an anonymous source close to the study. That report has not been made public. Loble said the technical review, as set forth in the city's comments, has the backing of the state health department. The second part of the city's of-fical of-fical comments to EPA deals with what Loble described as the "due process" aspect of the agency's listing of Prospector, , Loble said the second part of the report will criticize how data was collected and analyzed, which resulted in Prospector's position on the proposed Superfund list. City officials claim that the original surface-water sample of Silver Creek was taken when the stream was frozen. They also maintain main-tain that EPA analyzed the potential of groundwater pollution improperly using data gathered by the Utah Geological and Mineral Survey. The EPA's ground water scoring alone is enough to qualify Prospector for Superfund. And finally, local officals are expected ex-pected to challenge the Hazard Ranking System as it pertains to hard-rock mining sites like Prospector. Prospec-tor. According to Smith, the EPA's system was designed for chemical waste dumps and not mining sites. Sen. Garn has co-sponsored an amendment to the Superfund Authorization Bill that would require re-quire more study of mining sites before such areas could be named to Superfund. That bill passed the U.S. Senate but is now stuck in committee commit-tee in the House of Representatives. And while the official comment period ends Nov. 18, it is not known when an announcement will be made on the EPA's decision whether or not to drop Prospector from Superfund. City officials are expected to ask for a speedy response to the comments. by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer City Manager Arlene Loble has packed her bags with reports, test data and other materials that she will file with federal officials in the nation's capital Monday the deadline for comment on Prospector Square's proposed Superfund listing. The city's comments are included in a 60-page report on Prospector Square as it relates to the Environmental En-vironmental Protection Agency's Superfund list. That list, known as the National Priorities List, names 860 sites nationally that could be eligible for Superfund money for potential environmental hazard study and cleanup. Those documents argue that Prospector Pro-spector should not be added to the official of-ficial Superfund list, said Loble. "We have earned the right to be left alone," she said referring to the efforts made by the city to get Prospector Pro-spector off the list. The city is fighting the listing, charging that it is a sham and casts a stigma on Prospector and the community com-munity as a whole. The official 60-day comment period will end Nov. 18. Prospector Square and its residential residen-tial neighbor, Prospector Park, are built upon a silver mill tailings pond dating back to the late 1800s. The soil has high concentrations of lead, arsenic and cadmium. Loble will present the city's arguments against the listing to EPA officals at their Denver Region VIII offices Friday. She will be accompanied ac-companied by a small entourage of local officials, including City Attorney At-torney Tom Clyde, Assistant City Attorney At-torney Craig Smith and Chief Building Official Ron Ivie. Loble, Clyde, Smith and Ivie will go on to Washington, D.C., Monday to present their case to National EPA officials. City officials will meet with EPA's national Superfund director, Henry L. Longest, in the office of-fice of Utah Rep. Howard Nielson, according to a Wednesday press release. Nielson has invited Utah Sens. Jake Garn and Orrin Hatch to attend the meeting. Included in the city's comments is a "technical response" to the data that was used in the EPA's determination deter-mination to name Prospector to the proposed Superfund list, said Loble. That section of the report includes new data on whether tailings are eroding into Silver Creek and a "rescoring" of Prospector using Superfund criteria. The municipality, in conjunction with the Utah Department of Health, retested Silver Creek water during September. The creek runs through Prospector. An earlier test by the Division of Environmental Health indicated that tailings were |