Kennecott Utah Copper Corp. has agreed to $102,000 for discharging arsenic-contaminated waste water into wetlands and the Great Salt Lake.
The money — a $27,000 fine and a $75,000 grant to Utah State University for a statewide septic-tank training program — will settle a complaint filed by the state after a September 1999 break in a waste-water pipeline that runs from the company's smelter to a nearby pump station.
The leak lasted nearly one month before Kennecott discovered it and an estimated 29 million gallons of effluent escaped into wetlands on company property. Some of the waste also worked its way into a pipeline that runs beneath I-80 and drains directly into the Great Salt Lake.
State water-quality officials measured arsenic levels at 1.86 milligrams per liter at the outflow's discharge point. That reading was nearly four times the arsenic level allowed by Kennecott's state pollution-discharge permit.
In large doses, arsenic can be fatal to humans and animals. Officials are unsure what its long-term effects on the Great Salt Lake will be. There is no standard for arsenic in the lake's water, deputy director of the state Division of Water Quality Fred Pehrson said.
Company vice president Bill Williams said the leak went undetected because it was in an area obscured by tall reeds. Kennecott has replaced the pipeline with a double-walled line to reduce the chance of future spills.