Waste near Jordanelle will finally be capped

WASATCH COUNTY — Three piles of toxic mining waste, which pose a threat to a major source of Wasatch Front drinking water stored in Jordanelle Reservoir, will finally be capped — next year.

"It's taking a lot longer than it needed to take," said Luke Chavez, a site assessment manager for the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver. "But we're glad it is being done."

The state began pressuring the property owner, Stichting Mayflower Mountain Fonds, headquartered in the Netherlands, after it sought a groundwater permit in 1994 to drill wells in preparation of building a large housing development in the Jordanelle area.

But not until the past few days has Mayflower began stabilizing the sides of the tailings and sweeping up wind-blown waste into piles where it can settle over the winter.

Next summer, the piles will be covered with a protective clay covering.

A spokesman for Mayflower, reached at its Salt Lake office number, refused to comment on the company's activities. But its cleanup efforts come at least eight years after the company first was asked to take care of the tailings, just southeast of the Mayflower interchange off U.S. 40.

The EPA once had considered adding the tailings piles to its Superfund cleanup list in the mid-1980s, but because there was no development in the area at that time it was considered a low priority.

The tailings fall "more into a nuisance category than a health threat," said Keith Eagan, an environmental scientist with the Utah Division of Water Quality.

"It's primarily an eyesore," he said.

The tailings consist of "overburden," or waste rock, left over from mining operations decades ago in the area. The wastes primarily contain lead but also include arsenic, cadmium and zinc-copper sulfites. None of the levels are sufficient to prompt current EPA action, Chavez indicated.

"We've not done any type of investigation work, but it's been on our radar screen," Chavez said.

The Jordanelle Reservoir was built in 1993 as part of the $2.3 billion Central Utah Project, a system of delivering water to the Wasatch Front. Currently, Salt Lake County draws about 30,000 acre feet of Jordanelle water annually.

In 1984, Mayflower received approval from Wasatch County to develop its properties. The company owns 3,722 acres on which it pays taxes to the county, recorder Liz Parcell said.