Mine dust not dangerous, residents told

Asarco officials told Rancho Resort residents Friday that an analysis of tailings from their community and a nearby tailings dam showed the dust is not much different from soil samples taken nearby and contain no dangerous levels of metals.

That didn’t seem to satisfy many among the 150 people who attended a meeting that included Asarco and several environmental agencies and experts.

University of Arizona Soil Water and Environmental Science professor Raina M. Maier tried to reassure residents that the dust that blew into their yards and homes is not dangerous based on tahe results of a laboratory analysis that Asarco handed out at the meeting. However, Maier did say the small size of the minute dust particles represent a health problem when inhaled.

Many residents have complained of respiratory and other ailments following several blowing-dust incidents dating to Nov. 12.

Thomas L. Aldrich, Asarco vice president for environmental affairs, said dust sampled from the tailings dam, from four locations in Rancho Resort and from ground soil in Green Valley was analyzed and “across the board these are very low in metals, about what you’d expect from soils around here, comparable to the background levels in soils.”

Asarco officials handed out a printout of the analysis for 19 metals as compared to state and federal soil remediation levels for those metals.

Nearly all were well below the state and federal levels noted except the arsenic level of 5.9 parts per million, which is below the Arizona residential soil remediation level of 10 but according to Asarco is above a federal “soil screening level” listed at 0.39 PPM. The level was not explained by Asarco. Colleen McKaughan, Associate Director of the EPA’s Air Division for Region 9, said she is looking into the significance of that level.

Asarco officials also told Rancho Resort residents that while they did not violate their air quality permit last year when clouds of dust blew off the mine tailings, they apologize and will operate differently in the future to reduce dust problems.

Possible penalties

Many residents expressed anger at county and federal regulators for the limited penalties that Pima County could impose on Asarco, at $10,000 per occurrence.

“In the past Asarco got five-figure fines, a slap on the wrist,” resident Chuck Carpenter said. “It’s got to be in the high six figures. You’re going to have to nail them. That’ll get their attention.”

However, Pima County Department of Environmental Quality Director Ursula Kramer acknowledged outside the meeting that if Asarco disagrees with proposed fines, the department would have to go to court, saying, “We have the option of either settling with Asarco or litigating.”

Kramer disappointed some who wanted Asarco’s request for a permit renewal denied when she said she could make the permit more stringent but could not deny it because the purpose of regulation is to correct violations. The permit is being considered by PDEQ.

Resident Bill Forstet, who complained of prolonged respiratory problems after the dust storms, asked, “No matter what Asarco does, you don’t have the power to deny a permit?”

McKaughan said, “The answer is no. You can make a permit stringent, and you can make them make meet the permit but... we don’t seem to have that authority.”

McKaughan later said a mine in this area was closed after hydrochloric acid fumes it was emitting sickened several people and sent them to the hospital, but noted that Rancho Resort residents are going to their physicians but have not reported being hospitalized.

Getting action

Residents have complained that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was not responsive on the dust problem, but McKaughan told the meeting that the EPA has delegated its air quality program in Pima County to PDEQ, and also provide some funds for those activities.

McKaughan said “they are doing exactly what we would be doing. The air quality here is very good here. This is just a localized impact from the event.”

Aldrich, of Asarco, told residents the company has lived up to the provisions of its permit, but also said the mine would begin raising the height of tailings dams in sections rather than all at once in order to reduce the amount of dry tailings on top exposed to the wind.

“The bottom line is blowing dust is a problem, Asarco doesn’t disagree, especially in small particle size. Asarco is committed to making sure we don’t have incidents like this again.”

Aldrich said 100 percent of the top of Dam No. 8 has been watered since Dec. 22, and that is why there were no dust clouds from the top of the tailings dam on Jan. 21, when high winds created huge dust clouds over the Santa Cruz River and the FICO pecan orchards.

“Last Thursday (Jan. 21) was a high wind incident. All the things we’ve done since November and December was time well spent. You didn’t see tailings (dust) come off the piles in that event. We apologize for the previous incidents, we’ll make sure it never happens again,” Aldrich said.

Cleaning up

Asarco’s clean-up specialist, Karen Pickett, said Friday she has spoken to more than 50 Rancho Resort residents who want help cleaning their homes and yards, and plans to speak to another 50 who have signed up for clean-ups.

Tailings are the dry powder left over from processing of ore. They are stacked up in huge piles, or dams, ranging from a half square mile to a square mile in area, and about 100 feet high.

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