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Show Bangerter endorses plan to remove Prospector area from Superf und list by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer Gov. Norm Bangerter Monday embraced a resolution by local officials of-ficials aimed at removing Prospector Prospec-tor Square from the national Super-fund Super-fund list for environmental hazard study and cleanup. Park City officials huddled at the State Capitol with the governor and Utah Department of Health representatives. They came away with a pledge that the state would actively seek the removal of Prospector Pro-spector Square from the National Priorities List tabulated by the Environmental En-vironmental Protection Agency. The list ranks, in order of potential hazard, 860 sites nationally that may be eligible for Superfund money. Officially, Of-ficially, Prospector is designated as Silver Creek on the proposed update to the list. During a 60-day comment period, Park City and state officials hope to gather evidence that will refute the listing. Last Tuesday local and state officials began to collect new surface sur-face water samples along Silver Creek. The results of the analysis will be known in about 30 days, said Lorret-ta Lorret-ta Pickerel!, who heads the study for the State Division of Environmental Health. But those results, no matter how good or poor, may not be enough to take Prospector off the list, according accord-ing to federal and state health officials. of-ficials. They said potential for groundwater pollution in the area could keep Silver Creek on the list. Prospector Square a residential and commercial development was built on mill tailings from silver mining dating back to the late 1800s. The tailings contain high levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic and have been a concern to health officials. Last week, the Utah League of Cities and Towns passed a resolution that chastised the Utah Department of Health for the Superfund listing of Prospector. Park City Mayor Jack Green and City Councilman Al Horrigan Hor-rigan drafted the document that passed the body unanimously. The resolution states, in part: "The state health department is subject sub-ject to the temptation to use statistically insignificant sample studies in order to acquire federal funds for the department to the detriment of local communities." The document urges the governor and State Legislature, "to require that the state health department conduct statistically significant sample studies prior to inviting the EPA to A7 (CaDmntnimniieqfl f irdDinm . . . state health department. "Rather than scoring the site on potential (pollution), the system should be changed to get specific information" in-formation" before Superfund listing, Alkema said. During 1984, he said, his department depart-ment tried to hold off an EPA Super-fund Super-fund listing for Prospector. But, he added, toward the end of the year it became apparent the listing was inevitable. in-evitable. At that point, he said, his office took a new stance. "In December (1984) we took the position that if we can't stop the listing, to move ahead as fast as possible." Alkema explained that strategy was adopted in order to expedite ex-pedite the study of the effect the tailings tail-ings have on area groundwater, surface sur-face water and air quality. Ron Ivie, Park City's chief building official, said the municipality has gathered data that shows there is no pollution of ' groundwater. He said more than 100 samples of 13 wells in the area reveal no contamination by tailings. That information may not be enough to convince EPA officials Prospector should not be listed, Alkema noted.' He explained actual well sampling is only a small part of groundwater studies. Not used in ranking Prospector Square for the Superfund were dust samples collected from area homes by state health employees. The samples showed high levels of metals, including lead and cadmium. cad-mium. The dust samples were collected col-lected following health department blood screenings of Prospector Park children. Those tests revealed four children had elevated blood-lead levels. During a Sept. 12 meeting of federal, state and local officials, former Prospector resident Dr. Robert Winn said subsequent blood screenings of three of those children showed blood lead levels had diminished. State health officials, however, said they have not received receiv-ed that information. The fourth child continued to have elevated blood lead levels, state officials of-ficials said. In April 1985, that child was tested and found to have blood lead levels about twice the national average, said Dr. Dennis Perrotta of the state's Bureau of Epidemiology. To combat the tailings dust problem, pro-blem, Prospector area residents and businesses are spending $1.3 million to cover tailings with landscaping. Further, the municipality has received a grant to stabilize the banks of Silver Creek, which should keep tailings from the creek bed. "Certainly, what they have done is a step in the right direction," Geise said of the improvements. However, he said those improvements may not be enough to protect groundwater from contamination. EPA from A1 EPA into Utah cities and towns to investigate in-vestigate 'potential' health hazards." That action referred to water samples taken from Silver Creek, which Park City officials believe is the reason Prospector was listed on Superfund. One water sample taken above Prospector was high in cadmium cad-mium and one taken below Prospector Prospec-tor Park, the complex's residential neighborhood, had high levels of lead and cadmium, said Dr. Marvin Maxell, who did the samplings. ' Horrigan called the samples statistically insignificant. Further, city officials contend the samples were not representative because they were taken when the stream was frozen. William Geise, chief of the EPA's Superfund Remedial Branch for the agency's Region VIII office in Denver, agreed the water sample was not statistically significant. But he said the study need not be statistically significant to qualify under federal regulations for Super-fund. Super-fund. "The system is not based on an exhaustive ex-haustive scientific study. That comes after the (Superfund) listing," he said in a telephone interview inter-view Tuesday. Further, Geise said in the interview inter-view the sample of Silver Creek water taken Dec. 28, 1984, was not the only reason the area was listed on Superfund. A "hazard ranking model" also was used to determine whether groundwater might be polluted by area tailings. That model considers the toxicity of the perceived hazard in this case lead and cadmiumand cad-miumand its ability to find its way into area water and the local popula tion, he said. Among other things taken into consideration when building the model, Geise said, is soil permeability, permeabili-ty, distance to the aquifer in question ques-tion and annual precipitation in the area. To make the analysis, the EPA used us-ed information gathered by the Utah Geological and Mineral Survey. That organization contracted with Park City to make a study of area soils in 1983. It was the results of that study that first alerted city and health officials to the potential hazard posed by the tailings. However, Geise said the EPA will consider new data during the 60-day comment period. He said the EPA also will entertain criticism on the data used to make Prospector eligible eligi-ble for Superfund. State Environmental Health Director Ken Alkema was critical of the Superfund listing process. "The process that EPA has put together (for Superfund listing) is flawed," he said and noted public perception of the Superfund listing is negative. "(A listing) is perceived as being a serious malady without it being necessarily so." The system should be changed to allow more in-depth study before the Superfund label is attached, he said. Alkema said new data from surface sur-face water may not be enough to remove Prospector from the Super-fund Super-fund list. In comparison to the potential poten-tial for groundwater pollution as outlined by the EPA's scoring process, pro-cess, the surface water score may be insignificant. Prospector received a score of 38.4 on the hazard ranking system used by EPA. The groundwater score was enough to list the site, Alkema said, although no actual groundwater data was collected by EPA or the |