OCR Text |
Show Loble says EPA vulnerable to lawsuit if Prospector gains Superfund listing by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer Park City may be In a position to take legal action against the federal government if Prospector Square is officially named to the Superfund list of potential environmental hazards, city manager Arlene Loble said. The Environmental v Protection Agency would rather not remove Prospector Square from the proposed propos-ed Superfund list, Loble said following follow-ing a trip to Washington D.C. last week. Loble and other Park City officials submitted a 60-page report to Super-fund Super-fund program chief Henry Longest on Nov. 18, the last day of the comment com-ment period before the updated National Na-tional Priorities List becomes official. of-ficial. A listing would make the area eligible for as much as $800,000 in Superfund money to study potential environmental hazards. EPA officials would not 6ay when a decision would be made on whether Prospector's listing will become off icial. Since that meeting, Park City officials of-ficials have learned that the EPA already has set aside $800,000 to study the potential for groundwater contamination in and around the commercial-residential develop-i ment, which was built upon a century-old silver mine tailings pond. According to a Washington D.C. report in the Deseret News, the remedial investigation and feasibility feasibili-ty study have been scheduled for the third quarter of fiscal year 1986, or April, May and June of next year. By scheduling such action before Prospector is added to the official update, Loble said the EPA is acting out of step. "At least before they ; take that step, they should have to respond to the review and comment," com-ment," Loble said. Loble said the EPA is not anxious to drop Prospector from its updated list because, "It will show their inability in-ability to assess mining sites." Rather than appear inept when dealing with hard-rock mining wastes, the EPA would like to list Prospector, Loble said. However, if EPA lawyers perceive the agency to be vulnerable to a successful suc-cessful lawsuit, Loble said Prospector Prospec-tor may be excluded from the Na-,, tional Priorities List. i i If EPA lost a legal decision on Pro- ; spector, it could set a precedent and that is what the agency does not ; want, Loble said. : "Our current view is that they . (EPA) would be on very shaky ground (if they tried to defend the listing in court)," said Loble. ; , She added that it would be the city .( council's decision whether to take legal action if Prospector remains on the Superfund list. Loble said, she believes attorneys for EPA by now must consider Park' - City in a group likely to take legal action against a Superfund listing, tn Local officials, including Lobteji have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with the EPA's listing of Prospector. The municipality has spent at least $70,000 during the last year fighting the listing, according to city attorney at-torney Tom Clyde. Those expenses do not include $1.3 million being spent by Prospector businesses and homeowners to cover tailings with topsoil to alleviate any hazard from windblown dust. The municipality also has used a $250,000 state grant to improve the banks of Silver Creek to keep tailings from making their way into the stream. . Prospector Square and its residential residen-tial neighbor, Prospector Park, . were built upon an old silver mine ; tailings pond dating back to the 1880s. A study by the Utah Geological and Mineral Survey in , 1983 revealed high levels of arsenic, cadmium and lead in Prospector Square soil. Subsequently, the Utah Department Depart-ment of Health tested area children and found four with elevated levels of lead in their blood. One of the children was sleeping in an antique bed painted with lead-based paint. State health officials also did other testa .in the area, resulting in the area's Superfund listing in January. The city, however, has taken exception excep-tion to those tests and analyses. The firm of Dames and Moore, using us-ing updated or corrected test data, has reported that an analysis of the . area using federal criteria shows Prospector does not belong on the Superfund list. Dames and Moore contracted with Park City for the analysis. The Utah Department of Health, which originally invited the EPA officials of-ficials to study Park City, has reversed itself and now is supporting the city's position. Ken Alkema, state director of environmental en-vironmental health, said the EPA made a number of mistakes in analyzing Prospector. The agency made a false determination that city drinking water sources were connected con-nected to the Pacific Bridge Well beneath the Prospector Square development, he said. According to EPA documents, the Pacific Bridge Well serves 10,000 people. According to city officials, however,' that well is not part of Park City's water system and isn't connected to other aquifers as the EPA had assumed. A Park City Freedom of Information Informa-tion request of EPA records shows that city Public Works Director Jerry Gibbs informed the agency that the Pacific Bridge well was not part of the local drinking water system, Loble said. .. |