EPA Targets Two More Cleanup Sites

SEATTLE — The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing that one site in Washington be added to the National Priorities List and is officially listing another. Listing a site makes it eligible for federally funded cleanup actions under the Superfund program.

EPA has proposed listing Hamilton-LaBree Roads Groundwater Contamination Site in Chehalis, where leaking drums of chemicals threaten local municipal drinking water wells. Last year, approximately 63 buried drums containing carcinogenic compounds were excavated. The state Department of Ecology is supplying bottled drinking water for some families and businesses in the area.

The newly listed site is the Midnite Mine in Wellpinit on the Spokane Tribal Indian Reservation. The U.S. Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey collected samples that indicate that seeps, ground water and pit water there are contaminated with heavy metals and radionuclides.

For more specific information on the Hamilton-LaBree Roads site, contact Sally Thomas at (206) 553-2102. For details on the Midnite Mine site, contact Ellie Hale at (206) 553-1215.