Toxic material found at road site

Thursday, March 2, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

Nevada environmental officials and a landowner are investigating cancer-causing chemicals found at a southeast Las Vegas Valley site where the state wants to build a freeway interchange.

Whether the investigation will delay the highway project is unknown, both environmental and Nevada Department of Transportation officials said today. The project so far is on schedule, department spokesman Bob McKenzie said.

The transportation department discovered PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, and dioxins in old burn pits on the site at Lake Mead Drive and U.S. 95 in Henderson about a month ago.

NDOT was conducting a routine site evaluation for heavy metals and other toxic chemicals, said environmental scientist Daryl James of NDOT.

The Levy Trust Co. owns the northeast corner of the land where the chemicals were found.

The trust company is planning to hire experts to analyze the extent of the contamination under the supervision of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

The company is cooperating with the state and could fence the site as a first step, Robert Kelso, state supervisor of the remediation branch, said today.

Researchers have not started an in-depth survey and analysis of the site and the chemical findings are preliminary, he said.

"There's enough there that we are concerned and we have to determine the extent of the problem," Kelso said. He would not speculate whether the environmental investigation will delay the highway project.

The state plans to connect U.S. 95 to the Las Vegas Beltway with an interchange at the Lake Mead intersection.

While no one knows who owned the burn pits, industries dating to World War II operated nearby, Kelso said.

The former Basic Management Industrial complex produced magnesium, pesticides, insecticides and titanium on the northwest corner of Lake Mead and Water Street.

Dioxins occur from incomplete burning of PCBs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers dioxins hazardous to human skin, the immune system and hormones that control growth.

Mary Manning covers the environment for the Sun. She can be reached by phone at (702) 259-4065 or by e-mail at manning@lasvegassun.com