Department Of Ecology Budget And Program Overview 2001-03 Page 49
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69Agency. Each of these documents serves to
miles of primarily urban land in portions of King,
define, in part, how the respective agencies will
Pierce, and Kitsap counties, including Vashon and
perform their responsibilities for cleaning sites
Maury islands in King County. The plume covers
throughout the state.
tens of thousands of residential, commercial, and
industrial properties, leaving behind elevated
Local Government Involvement: The agency has
arsenic and lead in the surface soils. The sheer
seen an increase in interest in Remedial Action
size of the area and the number of diverse
Grants. This program provides funding for local
communities within it call for a unique approach
governments to clean up publicly owned
to cleanup, requiring a sophisticated, flexible, and
contaminated sites and related work. The
adaptive management plan and implementation
agency’s priority will be to continue funding for
strategy.
existing projects at partial funding amounts in
order to maximize the number of projects that can
Spokane River: The Spokane River is another
proceed, and then to work with new applicants on
example of a mega-site. Historic mining activities
proposed projects. The agency is exploring ways
in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin of Idaho have
to leverage existing grant dollars to cover the
washed metals downstream, contaminating
increased local government interest.
surface water, sediments, macroinvertibrates, and
fish in the Spokane River. A health advisory
Measure Success: The number of contaminated
issued in the summer of 1999 warns the public
sites the agency tracks across the state has reached
about specific locations along the beach where
8,900. Of these sites, 51 percent have been
there are elevated levels of lead and arsenic in the
cleaned up and require no further action, and 37
soils.
percent are in some stage of cleanup. Only 12
percent are awaiting further investigation or
cleanup to occur. Of these sites, there have been
1,144 sites with owners/operators interested in
conducting a voluntary cleanup. The number of
sites where cleanups have been completed
voluntarily has reached 591, while 553 sites have
a voluntary cleanup under way.
The agency has been working with tank owners to
get all tanks into compliance with EPA standards.
About 96 percent of underground storage tanks
now have leak detection equipment. All licensed
tank owners have documented their ability to pay
the costs of cleaning up releases in order to obtain
operating permits.
Major Issues
Mega-Sites
The Tacoma Smelter Plume: The Tacoma Smelter
plume is a "mega-site” for the agency. This site is
an example of a very large "area-wide"
contamination site.
Air emissions from the former Asarco Ruston
smelter have contaminated 200 to 300 square
Toxics Cleanup Program
Page 43
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