A major mess: State’s biggest cleanup could take 10 years

Jeffrey Libby

Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002 | 10:50 a.m.

Eventually the view could be of 7,000 homes overlooking the Las Vegas Wash, but for now, when engineer Ranajit Sahu surveys the hundreds of acres of old wastewater evaporation ponds, he sees years of soil and groundwater tests ahead of him.

As project manager for Basic Remediation Co., a sister company of developer LandWell Co., Sahu is working with the state Department of Environmental Protection on the largest, most complex cleanup of contaminated land yet attempted in the state.

Several years ago, the plan appeared simpler and within months of completion. But now, more than 10 years after cleanup plans began, Sahu's team of 15 engineering, environmental and other consultants is still mapping on paper how it will physically test and then clean up the land.

On Wednesday during a site tour, Sahu was reluctant to predict when homes might be built. The nearest he would commit to was somewhere between one and 10 years.

"The answer is, we'll characterize the land to the extent that everyone is satisfied. We're just going to do this carefully, deliberately and correctly," Sahu said.

Earlier this spring, the state added groundwater testing to Sahu's job list. And in July officials delayed plans to transport 2 million cubic tons of contaminated soil while BRC firms up design of a landfill southwest of Warm Springs Road and Boulder Highway.

Much depends, too, on what BRC engineers find as they continue to test soil and water, Sahu said. He hopes to stay within a budget of $20 million to $40 million.

The contamination appears most concentrated on 400 acres within the 2,400 acres planned for development north of Boulder Highway and Lake Mead Drive. That much at least is clear. But it remains unclear how deep the contaminants have leached into soil and whether groundwater will have to be pumped and treated.

The contaminants are the legacy of 45 years of chemical manufacturing that began in 1941 with the Federal Defense Corp.'s production of magnesium, about 166 million tons, to build lighter, faster planes and incendiary bombs.

A succession of private manufacturers, including Basic Magnesium Inc., dumped pesticides, arsenic, lead and other hazardous chemical by-products until 1976 when Congress passed laws governing chemical waste disposal. Today, about 100 acres of ponds remain active, used by Titanium Metals Corp.

Scientists working for LandWell took initial soil tests at the BMI complex in 1995. Since that time, scientists have taken another 60,000 soil tests.

Planning for additional soil tests began 11 months ago under a cleanup plan approved by state environmental officials. State officials then requested tests to determine any potential groundwater contamination from on-site sources.

Since that time, the state has rejected several draft cleanup plans submitted by Basic Remediation Co.

In a letter Feb. 1, Jennifer Carr, an environmental administrator for the state Bureau of Corrective Actions, requested BRC to address more than 70 pages of continuing concerns outlined largely by Jeff Johnson, a state environmental engineer.

"A significant level of effort has been put into our comments with the hope that they will allow the Basic Remediation Company to generate a revised document that can be approved by NDEP," Carr wrote.

"Resolution of the issues identified is important if BRC continues to seek closure based on residential standards."

Chief among Johnson's requests: more technical detail to explain the proposed methods of soil testing; more detail on background concentrations of contaminants; more detail setting the stage for evaluating 1/8-acre exposure areas; and further explanation of characterization of ground water.

"What they're talking about is taking old World War II-era disposal ponds and turning them into residential lots. It's not an easy task," Johnson said. "It hasn't been done in Nevada. It's the first project of this magnitude in the state."

Melissa Warren, president of Faiss Foley Merica public relations company, said, "As difficult and as cumbersome as the process is, we know it needs to be done. It's long overdue. A good thing is happening here."

Carry White, principal environmental planner for Clark County Comprehensive Planning, agreed. She is one of several members of a regional advisory committee overseeing the cleanup.

"We want this to succeed. We want this place to get cleaned up," White said. "But we are being very careful with this. Our interest is with the people that will live there. Maybe other people's interest is in the money that can be made there. But that can't be ours."