Epa Orders Firms To Remove Tainted Soil

The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered three businesses to remove thousands of yards of soil at the site of a local recycling company to reduce lead contamination hazards.

Federal environmental regulators indicated that McCarty’s Inc., Pacific Hide & Fur Inc. and Union Pacific Railroad will spend a combined $5.1 million to clean up contamination at the 3-acre pit on Pocatello’s west side.

An estimated 7,330 cubic yards of soil is scheduled to be removed and replaced with clean soil.

The expense to the three potentially responsible parties would have been even greater but EPA officials agreed to cleaning up the lead contamination only to a level acceptable if the land is limited to industrial uses in the future.

Over the coming months, agents for the three companies will negotiate with EPA officials on how much each will need to spend.

Ann Williamson, EPA’s site manager for the cleanup, said only two public comments were submitted on the cleanup proposal - one supporting it and the other complaining that pollution cleanup under the federal Superfund law takes too long and costs too much.