Commission approves Timet environmental cleanup plan

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2000 | 10:53 a.m.

Titanium Metals Corp. received the green light Wednesday from the County Commission to go ahead with an ambitious cleanup plan for its polluted land on the east side of Boulder Highway in Henderson.

A complex rezoning was necessary before the company could get environmental approvals from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, said Helen Foley, a representative of Timet and Basic Environmental Co., a subsidiary of Black Mountain Industrial Park where Timet is located.

The approval means that Timet can move the waste-processing system to the center of the complex, where Timet has produced titanium ingots for five decades. The metal is widely used for aerospace and defense purposes.

Under the Timet plan, hundreds of acres of contaminated soil under active and closed evaporation ponds will be shuttled under Boulder Highway to waste sites closer to the plant center. The land replacing the old ponds will be of good quality and can be used for other purposes, said Robin Bain, director of environmental services for Basic Environmental.

As part of a consent decree with the federal government, Timet will shift its waste-processing system to a new process that doesn't require the large evaporation ponds, Bain said.

The company's rezoning application included a request to expand an existing landfill. The landfill expansion is necessary because the solids gathered in the new waste-processing system have to be disposed of, she said.

But the expanded landfill will be state-of-the-art and will not present a health hazard, Bain said. All of the new operations will be farther away from residents than they are now, she said.

The plan ultimately means less land will be used or contaminated in the industrial process, Foley said.

County staff told the commissioners that they had received 50 letters and 96 signatures on a petition opposing the rezoning approval, but only one person spoke against the move.

Marvin Robinson, who lives about a half-mile south of the Timet plant, said he is concerned that moving the contaminated dirt and expanding the landfill could create "another Love Canal," the infamous pollution case in upstate New York that prompted the federal government to force all residents out of a contaminated town.

"You can't believe Timet," Robinson said.

Timet representatives said the cleanup, more than a decade in the planning, could ultimately cost $50 million to $60 million.

Timet and Basic Environmental will host a town meeting in Henderson to discuss the cleanup, Foley told commissioners.

Bain said the cleanup could begin in January 2002. Drying out the old evaporation ponds would probably take no more than two years, she said.

Commission Chairman Bruce Woodbury said he supported the rezoning because it would mean more land near Henderson. He said he looks forward to the time when the entire area will be residential.

The vote to approve was 5-0.