Arizona Not Happy Handling Others' Waste

By: Duane Craig

Dome Rock Industries was busily handling hazardous waste in Quatzite, Ariz., when it got sideways with the local environmental folks. The company recently agreed to pay a $25,000 settlement for violations of solid waste and water quality rules.

The company is registered with the Environmental Protection Agency under its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA, program as a handler of hazardous waste. Names listed as responsible parties and contacts for Dome Rock Industries also appear as officers of a San Diego company called EFR Environmental Services, which is involved in handling emergency response, well monitoring, waste solids and liquids and transport of hazardous materials. Perhaps that explains the comment made by an Arizona Department of Environmental Quality official who claimed the company was using Arizona as "a dumping ground for out-of-state interests," specifically from California, according to this article on ParkerLive.

In 2003, according to the same article, Dome had paid $100,000 in penalties for accepting loads of hazardous wastes without a permit, shipping hazardous waste to an unpermitted facility and failure to comply with reporting and tracking requirements. The ADEQ inspected the operation in October 2008 and decided to investigate things further. Dome closed down in March 2009. The violations that led to this latest settlement include not protecting the aquifer, suppressing dust with contaminated water, improper storage of contaminated soil and not protecting the ground when offloading.

Clear AZ Water Could Still Be Contaminated

September 15, 2010 - Even if tap water is clear, there is a significant chance that it could harbor dangerous — sometimes even deadly — contaminants.

Members of the Gila Watershed Partnership learned about contaminated wells and their threats to the health of people who depend on them during a Sept. 8 meeting. Kristine Uhl-man, program coordinator of the University of Arizona’s Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials, known as NEMO, talked about several contaminants and the importance of testing private wells yearly.

Uhlman said 10 percent to 42 percent of water taps are contaminated with viruses, and 95 percent of small groundwater wells violate one or more of the nation’s drinking water standards.

There are 7,014 drinking water wells in Arizona. These are at risk of contamination from nitrates, fluoride, uranium, arsenic and other substances.

Nitrates come from several sources, including fecal matter, fertilizer and natural occurrence in the soil. The chances for well contamination in Arizona are elevated because not enough rain falls to dilute and disperse the contaminants.

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U.S. EPA Settlements Require Investigation of Uranium Contamination On Southwestern Tribal Lands

September 13, 2010 - This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency entered into two enforcement actions, both of which will contribute towards cleaning up uranium contamination at the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation.

In one settlement, Rio Algom Mining LLC, a subsidiary of Canadian corporation BHP Billiton, has agreed to control releases of radium (a decay product of uranium) from the Quivira Mine Site, near Gallup, N.M. In addition, the company is to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the levels of contamination at the site. The total cost for this work is estimated to be approximately $1 million.

Under the terms of a separate settlement, the United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), will begin a comprehensive investigation of the levels of uranium and other contaminants in the waste, soils and groundwater at the Tuba City Dump Site in Arizona. They will also evaluate the feasibility of a range of cleanup actions.

"Uranium mining has left a toxic legacy, and we are working as partners with the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe and other federal agencies to clean up contaminated homes, mines and water supplies," said Jared Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator for EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. "These actions are just one part of a coordinated plan that has already resulted in the replacement of 14 homes, the assessment of more than 200 mines, and funding for water systems that will serve over 3,000 people with clean water."

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Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country

NYT - July 26, 2009 - The legacy wrought from decades of uranium mining is long and painful here on the expansive reservation. Over the years, Navajo miners extracted some four million tons of uranium ore from the ground, much of it used by the United States government to make weapons.

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EPA to rebuild uranium- contaminated Navajo homes in Arizona

June 24, 2009 - The federal government plans to spend up to $3 million a year to demolish and rebuild uranium-contaminated structures across the Navaho Nation, where Cold War-era mining of the radioactive substance left a legacy of disease and death.

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Contamination sites in Arizona: Is your neighborhood toxic?

April 19, 2009 - Contamination sites still in operation are all around the Valley --- in addition to areas in Goodyear and Phoenix; Glendale, Scottsdale and Mesa have ongoing clean ups.

Arizona has a total of 47 toxic sites. But with budget cuts, 15 of those projects have been put on hold.

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Arizona residents' wait continues at Superfund Site

March 6, 2009 - For 20 years, residents over the Motorola 52nd Street Superfund Site have waited for government officials to clean up contaminated water deep beneath their homes. And they'll continue to wait.

Resident Martha Breitenbach, a former critical-care nurse who has a degree in chemical engineering, said the cleanup has taken too long. She's concerned that residents have been kept in the dark about possible health issues.

Remediation efforts are primarily focused on trichloroethene, known as TCE, which is the contaminant with the highest concentration found in the tainted underground water.

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Hearing on TCE contaminated drinking water in Arizona

February 12, 2008 - The Arizona Corporation Commission will host a special open meeting Wednesday to discuss two TCE contamination incidents.

Commissioner Bill Mundell called for the fact-finding meeting following an incident in mid January, in which Arizona American imposed a three-day ban telling its customers not to use their tap water for drinking and preparing food.

The ban was in response to an incident in which concentrations of TCE, or trichloroethylene, exceeded federal standards by four times.

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EPA to clean up Arizona homes contaminated with arsenic, lead and copper

January 11, 2008 - The Environmental Protection Agency will proceed with the cleanup of 15 homes in the copper mining towns of Hayden and Winkelman after soil tests revealed high levels of arsenic, lead and copper, officials announced during public hearings Wednesday and Thursday.

The soil in the yards of the homes will be removed and replaced with clean dirt, and the interiors of the homes will be vacuumed and scrubbed with special equipment, EPA officials said.

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Health and Environmental Impacts of Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation

December 29, 2007 - Late this year, spurred to action by a series of articles in The Los Angeles Times in 2006, Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) held a hearing on “The Health and Environmental Impacts of Uranium Contamination in the Navajo Nation” in the House Oversight Committee.

The Waxman hearings led to a charge to federal and Navajo Nation agencies to determine a course of action for dealing with the aftermath of uranium mining: Identify a plan for the studies, tasks and long-term actions needed to get a handle on and deal with the contamination issues left behind, as well as a budget. Some close to the situation anticipated a multi-year plan and budget.

The agencies, however, returned with a one-year plan.

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Mesa Arizona residents fear water contamination

December 3, 2007 - ‘‘Hazardous wastes may have been disposed of on site,'' EPA staff member Paula Besson agreed in a handwritten comment added to the report in 1983. ‘‘However, the fact that a cone of depression exists in the groundwater in the area, the remoteness of the area and the depth to groundwater (500 to 600 feet), make this a low priority for follow-up.''

But in the 25 years that followed the report, growth and development encroached on the Talley site, with hundreds of east Mesa homes now within a mile of its location.

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Arizona town concerned about Superfund stigma

August 20, 2007 - Dewey-Humboldt is a small town with a big problem.

On a hill overlooking Western storefronts and modest homes about 15 miles east of Prescott is a 4 million-ton pile of mine tailings, a toxic relic of the town's mining past.

Just a few hundred yards away, across Arizona 69, is a rusting smokestack and an oily, black mountain of slag, the waste product of a long-defunct smelter.

Together, the area surrounding the decades-old piles is the first Arizona site in nearly a decade that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants placed on the Superfund list, the federal cleanup program reserved for the country's worst environmental hazards.

Dewey-Humboldt's 4,000 residents are divided on whether a Superfund listing would be a blessing or a bane.

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Arizona residents fear uranium contamination from past industry

August 2, 2007 - Five weeks ago, the company that used to own the uranium mill on the other side of the nearest paved road, U.S. Highway 160, reached an agreement with the Navajo Nation to test nearby wells it may have contaminated. El Paso Natural Gas hasn’t named the wells it will test yet, so Charley can only wonder if it will include the well her family has been using all these years.

The area’s troubles began when the Rare Metals Corporation started processing uranium at the mill in 1956. Off and on for the next 10 years, it processed some 800,000 tons of ore, all of it for the federal government’s nuclear weapons program. Following the federal regulations of the time, Rare Metals dumped the damp tailings, the waste product of milling, into unlined evaporation ponds on site. Unfortunately, not all the water evaporated. Much of the water seeped into the ground, taking uranium and other contaminants in the tailings with it.

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Arizona resident believes soil contamination is causing health problems

May 30, 2007 - ohn Stoddard says he was healthy when he bought 40 acres bordered by Aravaipa and Laurel creeks near Klondyke in 1995, but by 2002 he was declared disabled.

Today, Stoddard, 54, has a variety of physical ailments and wonders if the high concentration of lead in the soil near his home could be the cause of pain and stiffness in his joints and numbness and tingling in his fingers and toes.

Blood tests show he has lead and arsenic in his blood, but not at toxic levels. Stoddard said the blood tests do not indicate how much lead has been absorbed by organs in his body, and further testing is needed.

An Arizona Department of Environmental Quality report from April 25 shows that most surface soil on residential property near two mine tailings piles in Aravaipa Canyon contain high levels of lead. The report states the lead concentration is more than the remediation level of 400 parts-per-million.

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Mesa Considers Clean Up of Decade Old Contamination

" A lingering contamination site beneath Mesa’s Sixth Street service center could finally receive a cleanup.

In the 1990s, there were four fuel leaks into the ground at the city’s service center, 300 E. Sixth St., home to the city’s solid waste, truck fleet and utility division, according to city
records. " More . . .