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Show 'Who took-Prospector off EPA Superfund list? by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer Utah's Congressional representatives representa-tives are continuing to probe a decision by the Reagan Administration's Administra-tion's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which removed Prospector Square from the updated National Priorities List for Superfund environmental cleanup money. According to a source close to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversights and Investigations, Prospector Square which was listed on the Environmental Environmen-tal Protection Agency's (EPA) update to the National Priorities List as Silver Creek tailings was removed re-moved the day before the OMB approved the update March 26. Silver Creek was the only item removed from the list, the source said. He spoke on the condition that he not be identified. William Hedman, director of the EPA's Office of Emergency and Remedial Response, said the Reagan Administration has identified a number of sites that could be funded from other programs. Prospector Square is one such site. OMB told EPA that Prospector Square's environmental cleanup could be funded through the Surface Mining Control Reclamation Act ; (SMCRA) rather than Superfund. i Kedeman said his office now is studying whether that is possible. He confirmed that Prospector Square was the only name removed from the list. Officials disagree on whether the mining reclamation act has sufficient funds for environmental cleanup and related studies. Congressman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), who chairs the Subcommittee Sub-committee on Oversights and Investigations, Inves-tigations, called the deletion of Prospector from the Superfund list "highly inappropriate" in an April 2 letter to the EPA Washington D.C. administrator, Lee Thomas. According to a recent court ruling, hazardous mining sites should be cleaned up with Superfund money, according to the subcommittee source. In April of this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia ruled in the case of Eagle-Pitcher Industries Inc. versus the EPA, that mining sites should be placed on the National Priorities list making them available for superfund money. Prospector Square had qualified under the Hazardous Ranking System Evaluation in order to be named to the National Priorities List.The EPA's preliminary report on Prospector's tailings lists the potential for ground water pollution as high, the source said. The report also noted the airborne hazard from tailings dust. Locally, Utah Department of Health officials are not happy the Silver Creek tailings were removed from the Superfund list. According to Dr. Marvin Maxell, the assistant director fo the Division of Environmental Environ-mental Health, Superfund money is needed to study whether arsenic, 1 cadmium and lead from area tailings are leaching into groundwater. Silver Creek feeds the Weber River drainage which is the water source for W eber and Davis Counties along the Wasatch Front. No funding is available through state channels for such studies, Maxell said. Prospector Square first gained the' attention of health officials in October 1983 when a Utah Geological Geologic-al and Mineral Survey study revealed area tailings contained high concentrations of heavy metals. Subsequent testing showed that four Prospector youths had elevated blood-lead levels. The Utah Department of Health categorized those findings as posing "no imminent health hazard." Spokesmen for Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Congressman Howard Neilsen said they will determine if dropping Prospector from Superfund in favor of the mining reclamation act was appropriate. . . . fv.-i3ti.fi. .. |