Utah's environmental chief and the mayor of Midvale both support an Environmental Protection Agency plan for cleaning up the steel mill tailings that contaminate yards in Midvale.

EPA officials released their preferred alternative for dealing with Sharon Steel tailings in Midvale on Wednesday afternoon. It calls for removing contaminated soil from homes and other property, then storing it at the mill site for an ultimate disposal that has yet to be decided upon.For many years, dust laced with arsenic and lead has blown from the 14 million cubic yards of tailings at the old mill site. EPA experts recently tested the soil and announced that some yards nearby are contaminated far above federal health standards.

One property had 2,500 parts of lead per million parts of soil, said EPA experts.

Midvale Mayor Everett Dahl said Thursday, "With the soil tests and with the experts saying that there's a hazard in certain properties in the city, I take the position that whether they're right or wrong, they've created a cloud over a certain section of my city.

"The removal of the soil and replacement of the lawns and so on is necessary. If they don't do it, they've created so much harm to us that it devaluates property values and everything else."

Dahl said he would like the EPA to replace his lawn, so he'd get a better crop of grass, and thinks a lot of other residents have the same attitude.

Kenneth L. Alkema, director of the Utah Division of Environmental Health, said the division is really pleased the EPA made this decision.

"Last summer at the public hearing . . . we indicated that the first priority should be the off-site contamination, because that's where the public's health is really endangered," he said.

The EPA proposal "will reduce residents' risk of direct contact with the material. Lead and arsenic are the two major contaminants of concern," said J. Sam Vance, Denver, the EPA's project director for the Midvale Superfund cleanup.

Soil will be removed down to 18 inches below the surface. The "action level" for removing contaminated soil was set at 500 parts per million, under the EPA proposal.

New soil will be added and yards will be restored after the removal.

EPA will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m., Thursday, June 14, in the Midvale Middle School, 138 Pioneer St., to discuss its plans. It will also accept written comments through July 6.

The plan was chosen among five alternatives, ranging from no action to excavating the contaminated soil and treating it before disposing of it.

Cleanup efforts are now divided into two phases:

-Operating Unit 1, the Sharon Steel Mill site, is defined as a "source area" because it contains mill tailings. The mill contaminated other parts of Midvale over the years as the wind blew toxic dust from the site.

-EPA is studying the mill site, including tailings and ground water, and pledges it will select a cleanup remedy by March 1, 1991.

-Operating Unit 2, the residential and business properties where tailings have blown. This is defined as an "impacted area." The new plan involves only this unit.

Alkema said he is glad that the cleanup of Operating Unit 2 has been moved to the head of EPA's priority list for Sharon Steel.

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"We also are pleased that they proposed an action level of 500 parts per million for lead," he added. EPA had considered taking action only for areas with 1,000 parts per million and more.

State officials recommended that the action level be set at 400. However, Alkema was glad the EPA chose a level close to the state's recommendation.

If the action level had been set at 1,000 ppm, fewer homes would have qualified for the cleanup.

"We think it's in the right ballpark of reducing the exposure of the public to a safe level," he said.

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