Dioxin cleanup nearly complete

Jeffrey Libby

Monday, Nov. 4, 2002 | 11 a.m.

Dioxin cleanup on 18 acres near a future highway interchange in Henderson should be completed today, a state Division of Environmental Protection official said.

Cleanup of the site, at the southwest corner of Lake Mead Drive and U.S. 95, began Aug. 12. Contractors initially planned to excavate 10,000 tons of the dioxin-contaminated soil and ash, but have dug out more than 15,000 tons, Todd Croft, a state environmental protection official, said.

The majority of the ash appears to be incompletely burned household waste and glass from ketchup bottles dumped in the 1940s and 1950s, Croft said. Some samples taken from March 2000, however, showed high levels of the cancer-causing toxin, suggesting some waste may have come from chemical manufacturing at the former Basic Magnesium Inc. complex, now Basic Management Inc.

State environmental officials will take soil samples Tuesday, Croft said, and determine a final decision on cleanup efforts by early December.

Contaminated soil under high-pressure natural gas lines and Lake Mead Drive will be removed in the coming months as construction progresses on the planned interchange, Croft said.

Levy Realty Trust, which owns the property, paid an undisclosed amount for the cleanup. The state highway department will likely purchase the property for the interchange.