A century and a half ago, U.S. soldiers stationed in Utah discovered silver deposits in the Rush Valley and founded the town of Stockton in 1864 as a major center for smelting ore into precious metals.
Fortunes were made, but the true costs of these operations were passed down to future generations, left behind in the form of contaminated soil and mill tailings laden with heavy metals that have leached into the ground for decades. That legacy got Stockton designated as a national priority for Superfund cleanups, but good news is on the horizon for the growing Tooele County town of 700.
After more than 21 years on the priority list, completion of Stockton’s cleanup is finally in sight thanks to a $12 million infusion from the bipartisan infrastructure bill President Joe Biden recently signed into law. The Utah Department of Environmental Quality will use the funds to remove 70,000 tons of toxic soils, laden with lead and arsenic, from a historic smelting operation sandwiched between two subdivisions, according to Dave Allison of the Utah Division of Environmental Response and Remediation.
While few in Stockton even know about the historic soil contamination, that issue is what pulled Mayor Thomas Karjola into local government years ago.
“It’s wonderful to see this come to fruition after all of the work that’s been put in,” Karjola said. “I originally got on the town council just so I had a little bit more of a platform to try and make some noise about this. ….I’m leaving office in two weeks and it’s really nice to leave office on this note.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act set aside $1 billion to support 49 Superfund cleanups around the nation, according to an announcement Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Because of this legislation, we will be able to deliver long-needed resources to communities like Stockton, which have been awaiting funding to address environmental and health issues as a result of contaminated land,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, the only member of Utah’s all-GOP congressional delegation to vote for the $1.2 trillion spending bill.
Formally known as the Jacobs Smelter Superfund site, it is named for one of the nine smelters that operated near Stockton in the 1870s and 1880s. One of 25 in Utah, the site covers 8 square miles along State Road 36, encompassing the entire town and several smelter locations.
“Addressing contamination at Jacobs Smelter is long overdue, and we look forward to making a lasting difference in this community by completing the cleanup process,” said DEQ Executive Director Kim Shelley. The cleanup is expected to be complete by the end of 2023.
The Waterman Smelting Works, west of Stockton, will be the focus of the cleanup’s final leg in which contaminated soil will be scraped off 30 acres.
“There are really high hot spots that will have to go to a hazardous waste facility and we haven’t determined which one it will go to,” Allison said. “For some of the lower levels, we’re negotiating with the city of Stockton, which has a repository that they created during their water project 10 years ago. We may be able to use that. It will actually save us money.”
The largest of Stockton’s smelters, Waterman opened in 1879 and operated through 1886, producing 3,300 tons of flue dust and nearly 15,000 tons of smelter slag, according to the EPA’s most recent 5-year review for the site.
The site’s namesake Jacobs Smelter opened in 1872 to process ore from the Ophir Mining District. It used three vertical blast furnaces, each processing 25 tons of ore a day. A concentrator was built next to the smelter in 1879, milling 100 tons of ore a day, leaving 80% of it as waste.
When ore is smelted and milled, heavy metals such as arsenic and lead are released as byproducts. These metals accumulate in the ground and pose a health risk. Since the metals are impossible to separate from the soil, the only solution is to haul the soil away at great expense.
“Without a responsible party, We have to get that money from the general fund, and it’s harder to come by through the regular process. We compete against 1,300 other Superfund sites across the country,” Allison said. “This one lump sum funding really enables us to plan more efficiently and to not have the uncertainty of being able to complete the project.”
