Contaminated soil removal is planned for Henderson

Monday, April 3, 2000 | 12:38 p.m.

Soils contaminated with pesticides, metals and radioactivity from industries operating in Henderson as early as World War II are scheduled for removal to make way for rows of residential neighborhoods.

The state has ordered property that held evaporation ponds used by the Basic Management Industrial complex east of the Boulder Highway to be cleaned up. LandWell, the real-estate arm of BMI, plans to build Provenance, a master-planned community with two golf courses, once the cleanup is complete.

Henderson residents will have a chance to comment on the plan Tuesday night.

Basic Remediation Co., BMI's environmental arm, plans to clean the property as well as the location of active evaporation ponds nearby, to the highest EPA standards, the company says.

State officials and the companies responsible for the cleanup are asking the public to comment on five alternative methods, ranging from no action at all to the preferred approach of burying the tainted soils at a landfill on industrial property west of the Boulder Highway.

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection has to ensure that the contaminated soil and ground water in old evaporation ponds less than a mile from the Las Vegas Wash do not harm human health or the environment, Bob Kelso, the state's project manager for the site, said.

In 1991 the state, the companies and the city of Henderson agreed to test, analyze and then clean up chemical contamination.

After soil and water samples were collected, the results showed no health or environmental threat from the ground water entering the Las Vegas Wash, which feeds Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's major drinking water source.

Basic Remediation Co. came up with the plan to remove up to 2 million cubic yards of soil, send it on a closed conveyor belt system under Boulder Highway and bury it at a new landfill on the BMI site.

The industrial site bordered by Lake Mead Drive and Boulder Highway.