EVERETT — Toxic soil cleanup work across north Everett is poised to continue as Gov. Jay Inslee set millions of state dollars in his newest budget to let it proceed.
A long-gone metal smelter carried arsenic and lead in its smoke plumes that settled into the soil of today’s homes.
So far, Ecology has cleaned up more than half of the contaminated yards.
The state Department of Ecology requested $10.8 million toward its project of removing and replacing the contaminated soil.
Inslee gave the whole ask in his proposed capital budget released Thursday, Dec. 17.
Of the $10.8 million, approximately $6.6 million would go toward residential properties that await cleanup along East Marine View Drive. About $3 million would go toward soil work along the lowlands adjacent to the Snohomish River.
The contamination is the fallout legacy from a metal smelter in north Everett from 1894 to 1912 run by a company that Asarco later bought. The smelter stood near today’s intersection of Broadway and Highway 529 in the Delta Neighborhood.
Ecology once estimated the affected area reaches south to 14th Street and west to the western edge of American Legion Park. The Snohomish River makes up the northern and eastern boundaries.
Much of the neighborhood in the immediate vicinity has been cleaned up. Wiggums Hollow Park, Viola Oursler Park, and American Legion Park also have been decontaminated.
Researchers identified that there is soil contamination in 1990, and cleanup work began in 1999.
Ecology received close to $190 million for cleanups statewide in an Asarco bankruptcy settlement in 2009, and at the time dedicated $44 million to the Everett project.
The money ran dry in 2018, and neighbors successfully petitioned Legislators for money in 2019 to restart decontamination work.
Ecology anticipates needing $17 million more over the next 10 years to complete all of the work.
