CHARLYNN ANDERSON - North County Staff | Posted: Sunday, April 29, 2007 11:00 pm
An EPA study of soil samples in Fairfield's roads shows that arsenic levels in some areas are more than 10 times the safe limit, and so far there's no money to fix the problem.
"It's bad news all the way around because we have no money to clean it up, and we're a low priority on the federal government's list because of our low population density," said Councilman Wayne Taylor.
Elevated concentrations of arsenic found in the samples supports old-timers' accounts of county road crews hauling mine tailings from the old Manning Canyon gold mine to use as road base in Fairfield.
Testing will continue this summer, said Mayor Lynn Gillies.
Occasional visitors to Camp Floyd State Park should not worry about arsenic under the roads, since it is long-term exposure to airborne arsenic dust that poses a threat to human health, but for lifelong residents of Fairfield, the threat of toxic exposure is a real concern, Gillies said.
The Environmental Protection Agency conducted a field study Dec. 11-13 to test samples of road base material in Fairfield's roads. Gillies recently received the results of that study, the Trip Report Manning Canyon-Fairfield Site in EPA Region Eight.
"The EPA will set up monitors to check on the dust this summer and see how much arsenic is actually blowing around," Gillies said.
The variation in arsenic concentrations between levels of soil beneath the roads indicates the location of the layer of tailings. For example, the highest level of arsenic contamination found was 7,620 parts per million found on west 1540 North at a depth of 6 inches. The arsenic concentration in the same location at a sample depth of 24 inches dropped to only 64 ppm.
The EPA lists 500 ppm as the human health hazard level of arsenic warranting soil removal. Even though chip seal covers the road base, crumbling road edges are a cause for concern because exposed arsenic-laden dust may become airborne.
At each of eight locations in Fairfield, the EPA field crew sampled soil at four depths -- 6 inches, 12 inches, 18 inches and 24 inches. Two additional sites were tested at fewer depths.
The Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team analyzed the samples, and four samples also were analyzed by Northern Analytical Laboratories Inc. Both labs found significant arsenic contamination at every site except the intersection of 1540 North and State Road 73.
In the very center of Fairfield at the intersection of 18040 West and 1540 North, near the Stagecoach Inn, the 6-inch sample showed 3,700 ppm and the l8-inch sample climbed to 6,280 ppm of arsenic contamination.
A previous study conducted in Fairfield in 2000 by the Bureau of Reclamation on more than 1,100 soil samples showed another source of contamination -- arsenic that has washed down from Manning Canyon into the flood plains.
Gillies has contacted U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, written letters to Utah County commissioners, and said that he is "very much in touch" with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
"My concern is to clean it up once and for all," said Gillies.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.