Kent city officials plan to hire an outside attorney and an environmental consulting firm to help assure hazardous waste at the Landsburg Mine near Ravensdale won’t leak into the nearby Clark Springs watershed that provides 60 percent of the city’s water supply and serves 57,000 residents.
The Landsburg Mine is a former underground coal mine that closed in 1975. The mine includes nearly 4,500 drums (55 gallons each) containing petroleum and other wastes dumped there in the 1960s and 1970s, said Mike Mactutis, city environmental engineer manager.
“It’s been 30 years since any hazardous waste was dumped in the mine, but it’s of significant concern,” said Tom Brubaker, city attorney. “But it’s not an imminent threat today.”
The city Public Works Committee, which includes Council members Deborah Ranniger, Ron Harmon and Debbie Raplee, voted unanimously Monday to hire attorney Robert Bakemeier of Mercer Island as well as Aspect Consulting of Seattle to help oversee the state Department of Ecology and its Toxics Cleanup Program of the Landsburg Mine. The hirings will go to the full City Council for approval on March 17.
“We’re trying to assure that it will not become a threat to our water supply,” Brubaker said in an interview Tuesday. “The mine is in close proximity to the springs. We want to do everything we can to protect our water source.”
State officials are working with potentially liable parties – companies that used the site to dump waste or provided waste dumped at the mine – on a cleanup plan. No date has been set for when that cleanup plan will be completed.
“We hope in the next several months to bring out a draft cleanup plan,” said Larry Altose, a DOE spokesman Thursday. “It’s still in the formative stages.”
The cleanup plan could include long-term monitoring of wells in the area, a treatment plan if contamination gets out of the monitoring wells and using clay or some other material to cover the mine to keep water out of the site, Altose said.
But the city wants to make sure the plan protects its water.
“We want to provide our own independent review to be sure the materials will not travel to our (water supply) site,” Brubaker said. “We are not convinced the existing containment is satisfactory. We want to analyze it in detail. The Department of Ecology is convinced the containment is adequate and not a threat to the water supply. We don’t fully agree.”
Barbara Smith, a spokesman for the companies working with the state on a cleanup plan, said Thursday that the site is safe.
“We think we’ve addressed all the issues related to groundwater,” Smith said in response to the city of Kent’s concerns. “There’s no immediate threat to Clark Springs or any other water sources.”
“We continue to work with the city of Kent and will meet with them in April to compare notes,” Altose said. “We certainly take seriously the concerns Kent has brought to the table and we will work to address those concerns.”
The property is owned by Palmer Coking Coal Co., and formerly owned by the Plum Creek Timber Co., L.P. The potentially liable parties include those two companies as well as Philip Services Corp., Browning-Ferris Industries, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, PACCAR, Time Oil Co., and Allied Waste Industries.
Those companies are working with the state to get a consent decree along with the cleanup plan. The consent decree would give the companies limited immunity from any lawsuit connected with future hazardous-waste leaks, Brubaker said.
Once a draft cleanup plan is finalized, the public will have 30 days to comment on the proposal and the consent decree. Following public comment, the consent decree would be issued in court and the cleanup work would start.
City officials have met with the Department of Ecology since the 1990s about the hazardous waste in the mine. Sample tests have not found any hazardous waste leaks – yet.
“The state knows where the waste was put in, but doesn’t know where the waste is now,” Mactutis said. “Our main concern is if contamination comes out, we might not know until it’s in the water.”
State officials said they are keeping a close watch on the site and will continue to monitor the site for years.
The city’s contract with Bakemeier would pay him up to $50,000. Aspect Consulting could earn up to $48,600.
Both contracts would be paid out of the city water-utility fund rather than the general fund.
Bakemeier would function as a liaison between the city and the DOE. Bakemeier also would monitor the work of the state’s efforts requiring those companies responsible for the contamination in the mine to clean up the site.
Aspect Consulting would conduct an objective technical review of action taken to date by the state and would provide overall guidance to the city during the development of the cleanup plan to be issued by DOE.
“We want to provide our own independent review to be sure the materials will not travel to our (water supply) site,” Brubaker said. “We are not convinced the existing containment is satisfactory. We want to analyze it in detail. The Department of Ecology is convinced the containment is adequate and not a threat to the water supply. We don’t fully agree.”
Barbara Smith, a spokesman for the companies working with the state on a cleanup plan, said in a phone interview Thursday that the site is safe.
“We think we’ve addressed all the issues related to groundwater,” Smith said in response to the city of Kent’s concerns. “There’s no immediate threat to Clark Springs or any other water sources.”
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