Kids Ignore Hazardous Area Signs At Northeast Junkyard In/Around: Northeast Spokane

For federal environmental officials, a 10-acre former junkyard in northeast Spokane is a toxic waste dump that needs to stay secured and be cleaned.

For many kids living in the neighborhood, it’s a place to explore, build forts and get away from adults.

For years, the Spokane Junkyard site has been fenced and closed to the public. Signs at the entrance warn that it is a hazardous area.

But neighborhood kids have routinely ignored those signs, and even last week a new hole had been cut in the fence with old chairs, car parts, and metal dragged from the site onto a nearby lot.

“I’m 10 and I go in there all the time,” said Kim Linquist, a student at Bemiss Elementary across from the site.

With school out, the site is expected to be more of a draw for area youngsters looking for excitement and privacy, said Larry Weber, 48, owner of an auto recycling lot next door.

And Linquist said signs aren’t likely to deter.

“I saw kids go back there just because they thought it was cool to trespass,” she said.

The apparent attractions are dozens of old cars, rusted metal, out buildings and other junk parts that were on the property before it was classified as a EPA Superfund site.

Under the law, areas classified as such are eligible for a special pool of money for cleanup.

What makes the junkyard site dangerous is not the metal, but hundreds of chemical and fertilizer drums. When a fire consumed the site in 1987, much of this mixed with dirt and the ground is now itself considered hazardous.

Investigation of the site has moved slowly, but most of the cleanup work is set for 1996, said Jean Baker, a liaison for the Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle.

Though Bemiss school officials and others take pains to tell students about the hazards, and notices have been sent home, kids are still curious.

“It’s been an attractive nuisance to kids, vagrants, people that want to party. The fence has been fixed so many times,” said Baker.

Bryan Linquist, 12, said he once found jars of dirt samples at the site and brought them home.

“I didn’t know what the jars were, I showed them to my dad and he said to throw them out and wash my hands,” Bryan Linquist said.

At Cook and Liberty, a 75-unit low-income apartment building has more than 100 children. Mark Wallace, 29, the parent of two children, a 7-year-old and a 2-yearold, said he didn’t know anything about the site until a meeting was held in February. He said older kids routinely play in the field, but he won’t allow his children to go near it.

Randy Ticen, 28, went to Bemiss and grew up in the neighborhood and said he used to play in the field before it was designated a hazard.

It’s become almost a rite of passage for neighborhood boys to go into the field and build forts or burrow into old tunnels, he said.

There are legends attached to the field and rumors that old World War II weapons and equipment are buried on the property.

“I played in there when it was a junkyard, we all did. Now I know what’s wrong with us,” Ticen joked.

Transients are also seen to go in and out - some with groceries.

Baker said neighborhood meetings have raised the issue of trespassing, and for that reason the agency posted more signs and reinforced the fencing. But two weeks after the repairs, a hole the size of a desk had been cut in the fence not far from Cook and Liberty.

Neighbors are being asked to telephone police and report trespassers, Baker said.

“We depend on people around there; we hope people will stay out,” he said.

Before the fencing was fixed, Weber said people would even drive into the site and dump more stuff or just hang out.

“Spokane entertainment,” he said.

, DataTimes