Builders Pay for Cleanup for Houses Built on Arsenic-Laden Soil

An emergency cleanup in 1995 may finally have some form of closure, at least when it comes to determining who should pay for the costs. The EPA announced today that a settlement has been reached between the EPA and those responsible for two housing developments that were built on soil contaminated with arsenic resulting from a gold mining operation. In all, twelve individual parties will pay $721,000, a portion of the funds spent by the EPA to restore the Mesa de Oro and Gold Quartz Terrace housing developments in Sutter Creek, California.

In March 1995, the EPA assessed health dangers at the Amador County developments, and found that the residences had high levels of arsenic in their yards. The levels found were above 500 parts per million (ppm), and just to put that in perspective, the EPA's health standard is 22 ppm. An emergency cleanup operation began in May 1995. Furthermore, the EPA began investigating and negotiating with responsible parties to determine what, if any, costs the developers or mining operators would pay in order to clean up the former Central Eureka Mine site.

Now, twelve years later, those responsible parties have been named and a settlement has been reached as to who will help cover the EPA costs to clean up the arsenic. The EPA had spent over $4 million to cap piles of mine tailings and other measures to prevent further contamination. Other measures to restore the site included excavating the yards of the homes in the development.

Alpheus Kaplan and the Nehemiah Development Company, which Kaplan owns, are the parties named in the EPA press release announcing the settlement. A 1995 EPA press release also names Wilbur and Myrtle Salmon, Charter Mortgage and Investments, and Kirk Bryson as owners and operators of the site. Steel Building Systems, Incorporated was named in the 1995 release as the owner and developer of the Mesa de Oro subdivision. Allied Signal is the group that took over for the Central Eureka Mine Company, followed by Honeywell International.

Since 1995, when cleanup operations began, Kaplan and Nehemiah have already contributed $300,000 to the effort. Honeywell and Allied have spent several million on their part to restore the site. In a separate settlement on the same matter, Honeywell will pay another $2 million to the EPA for the Central Eureka Mine site.

In today's EPA press release, Keith Takata, the director of the Superfund division in the Pacific Southwest region commented, "We pursue financial settlements such as this one to recover the costs EPA spends to cleanup sites. This settlement will bring valuable resources to help finance future cleanups."

Arsenic is a poison and causes cancer in humans, and arsenic-containing dust can enter the system through ingestion or inhalation. It can then cause cancer of the skin or the lungs. Arsenic is a by-product of the gold mining process used at the Central Eureka Mine, which was in operation since the 1850's.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency