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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Dec. 16, 1999
99-268
Contact: Tim Nord, Toxics Cleanup Program, (360) 407-7226
Ron Langley, Ecology Public Information, (425) 649-7009; pager (206) 663-1785
OLYMPIA - The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) vowed to continue cleaning an arsenic-contaminated neighborhood in Everett while it appeals a court ruling today that excused Asarco Corporation from responsibility for part of the work.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor ruled Asarco is required to clean property within the boundaries of its old lead and arsenic smelter, but is not required to clean properties outside the boundaries of the company’s historical smelter site.
"We’re very disappointed with Judge Tabor’s ruling. We think it demands an appeal," said Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons. "It lets Asarco off the hook for a significant portion of the Everett site and leaves many of the homeowners outside of the protection intended by Washington citizens when they approved the state’s cleanup law."
"We’re confident that we will prevail on appeal," he said.
Fitzsimmons said Ecology would still ask the state legislature for $3 million to continue cleaning neighborhood yards while it appeals today’s ruling. The state cleaned the 10 most-contaminated yards on the site last summer, but hundreds more remain.
Mary Sue Wilson, one of the assistant attorneys general who argued the case for Ecology, said the state believes the court's ruling was an erroneous application of principles of constitutional law and also undermines the intent of state citizens who passed the cleanup law in 1988.
"The law states that each person has a fundamental right to a healthful environment and that persons responsible for creating hazardous waste sites should be responsible to pay for cleanup," said Wilson. "We think that is a reasonable expectation, but the court apparently does not agree."
Washington state’s hazardous site cleanup law, known as the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), was approved by state voters as Initiative 97. This is the first time the law has been challenged in court.
The Asarco Corporation's lawsuit challenged the cleanup law as it relates to a former lead smelter and arsenic plant operated by the company in northeast Everett during the early part of this century. Asarco's operations deposited arsenic, lead and other dangerous substances into the surrounding Everett environment. When Asarco later sold its property for residential development, Asarco did not inform the purchasers of the hazards it left behind.
As an operator of the smelter, Ecology identified Asarco as the party responsible for cleanup of the abandoned site under the provisions of MTCA.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
