CEDAR VALLEY — When Jack Brown tried to stop a bunch of kids shooting paint balls in a war staged on the light brown mine tailings in the Manning Canyon Mill site west of Cedar Fort, they just laughed at him.
"I told them to go home and wash their hands, and they basically ignored me," Brown said. "They had no idea they were playing with a known carcinogen."
Neither do the other recreation enthusiasts who routinely run their four-wheelers, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles over the six tailing areas covering 1,470 acres, kicking up deadly dust and breathing in poison, he said.
"The hazard is highest for those people. They're right where the area is most contaminated."
Brown is a wildlife biologist and the Bureau of Land Management field representative dealing with the materials left over from mining for gold and silver in the Manning Canyon area between 1890 and the 1930s.
It's been calculated that enough arsenic exists in the soil to push exposure levels to 76 times higher than what is considered safe for areas where humans live and play — as much as 10,000 parts per million. Anything above 500 parts per million in a yard area is unacceptable according to the EPA, Brown said.
"We're really high in arsenic. It's a problem," Brown said.
Animals in the area are not seriously impacted except that nothing grows on the bald mounds.
Large amounts of arsenic, mercury and lead are contained in the 720,200 cubic yards of tailings near the mine site and a series of deposits spread between the original tailings site and the town of Fairfield. Deposits dumped near the sediment ponds flowed toward the town after the ponds were breached.
It has to be cleaned up, Brown said. The cost is expected to run $7 million to $14 million. Some money is available from the Central Hazmat Fund distributed by the Department of the Interior.
About half of the land involved is Bureau of Land Management property. Forty-two percent is privately owned by a family that inherited the property and a mining company that once operated in the area.
Cleanup options range from simply capturing the tailing material and burying it on-site to moving the tailings and chemically neutralizing the poisons.
"We're currently in the process of letting the public study the options, then we'll need a detailed removal design plan and then look at implementation," Brown said. "We could start this winter depending on the weather and the timing of the funding."
Documents outlining the specifics of each cleanup option are available for the public to read at the Lehi Library, at the BLM office in Salt Lake City, 2370 S. 2300 West, or on the Web site at www.ut.blm.gov. Comments will be accepted until May 5, 2000.
You can reach Sharon Haddock by e-mail at haddoc@desnews.com