The soil containing heightened levels of lead and arsenic has been an issue for the school since at least 2016 when it entered into an environmental covenant with the Environmental Protection Agency. The covenant set rules for soil management on school grounds and under the plan, contaminated soil can’t stay on campus for more than 30 days.
But, the larger of the two piles has been on site since 2017 and the smaller pile was brought in during the spring of 2022. The piles were placed behind the school to facilitate construction projects at McPolin Elementary.
Near the end of 2022, the Park City School District received two letters from the Department of Environmental Quality warning the placement and time the piles had been there violated city and state codes. The EPA then said the district was required to submit a “Materials Management Plan” or face enforcement measures.
Under the district’s plan, crews began removing the soil during school breaks starting in December 2023. The last round of removal started this week and will end June 13.
Stephen Galley is the vice president of R&R Environmental, Inc., the company contracted to do the work. He said crews removed almost 100 truckloads of soil this week and took it to the Three Mile Canyon landfill. Next, his team will finish layering at least six inches of uncontaminated dirt on top of the site.
With the physical piles gone, Galley said the next phase of cleanup can begin. Throughout the removal process, his team has been taking soil samples to test the contamination levels.
“We're sending samples off continuously as this process goes,” Galley said. “We took seven today, and we'll be taking some tomorrow also. So we've got to get those results in. We'll do an analysis on those as soon as the last lab report comes back.”
Galley said that process is expected to take about two months.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the next steps might be for the Environmental Protection Agency and Utah's Department of Environmental Quality.
Park City School District Chief Operations Officer Mike Tanner said June 12 the project will finish just under the $2 million estimate.
