The Environmental Protection Agency and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality visited Fairfield this month to re-examine the town's arsenic contamination problem.

Mayor Lynn Gillies and councilmen Michael Burch and R.L. Panek joined Al Lange of the EPA and Neil B. Taylor and Robert M. O'Brien from the DEQ for the investigation.

Panek said that he doubted the agencies would step in and provide cleanup funds for such a small community.

"Those guys weren't too encouraging," Panek said at a recent Town Council meeting. But Gillies expressed more hope for government assistance.

Lange is the Region Three on-scene coordinator for the EPA, and traveled from Denver for the tour of Fairfield's contaminated roads and flood plains.

As coordinator of the Emergency Response Site Assessment section of the DEQ, Taylor went to assess the extent and the health risks of the arsenic contamination, and O'Brien, a DEQ environmental scientist, was there to evaluate the areas where tests have been done.

"The team came as an information-gathering task force. Their job was to assess the problem, not offer any assurances," Gillies said.

Fairfield leaders have been working to get funding for a cleanup of the arsenic since the town incorporated in 2004. The EPA documented the arsenic problem with a study in 2000.

The arsenic is the result of flood plains and gullies that have washed chemicals down from Manning Canyon mining operations west of town.

Gillies said certain undeveloped areas contain an arsenic concentration as high as 8,000 parts per million. The flood plains and gullies are undeveloped for the most part, but an equally serious problem lies with the contamination of Fairfield's roads.

As recently as the 1940s, road crews used the mine tailings for road base for the town's chip-sealed roads.

A DEQ study done in 2005 revealed 3,176 parts per million arsenic contamination in the dirt where the chip seal had worn away on a town road.

"We have a definite problem in Fairfield that we need assistance from the state and federal government to handle," said Gillies.

EPA arsenic limit of toxicity:

.01 parts per million in drinking water

Occupational Safety and Health Administration limit:

An average of 10 micrograms arsenic per cubic meter of workplace air over an eight-hour shift

Arsenic exposure symptoms:

A sore throat or irritated lungs

Darkening of the skin

Appearance of small "corns" or "warts" on the palms, soles and torso

Nausea and vomiting

Decreased production of red and white blood cells

Abnormal heart rhythm

Damage to blood vessels

Sensation of "pins and needles" in hands and feet

Source: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.