In 2010, Park City lost access to the EPA-approved Richardson Flat soil repository. For years, this is where any of the old mine tailings that needed to be removed from other areas were stored.
Since then, the city temporarily placed soils from several projects at what’s known as the Gordo site on the north or uphill side of SR 248 coming into town. The city’s efforts in 2021 to permit the Gordo property as a soil repository were derailed after public outcry. Now the State Division of Environmental Quality wants a plan of action.
The Park City Council reviewed several options at its meeting Thursday and the consensus says council member Max Doilney seems to be to repurpose the site so it can provide some community benefit.
“It allows for us to mitigate the soil on site, some of it will be trucked away,” Doilney said. “The experts in the room made it very clear that we do have to mitigate that soil some way or another. So, it does have to be disturbed and that was a big part of our conversation during the election. People were concerned about the disturbing of those soils. We don't have a choice in that it does have to be disturbed whether it's just pushed into another deeper pit that's lined similar to the Old Town Transit Center, similar to Park City Heights, where they come in, there's a liner underneath, they cap it, they come in and do regular testing. That's the type of ongoing management of this site that we're going to have to do one way or the other.”
While Doilney has some ideas for what community benefits he might like to see built on the Gordo property, he says he’ll refrain from sharing those until the city takes public input and he can hear what residents would like to see.
A park and ride is one concept that’s been thrown out since the site would be a right-hand turn for those coming into Park City and also accesses SR 248 from an intersection with a traffic signal.
“That seems like a really good option,” Doilney said. “There are lots of different needs in the community and I want to make sure that we vet all of those needs.”
Other options the council considered were to haul all the soil off-site at a potential cost of $4.5 million or keep it on-site, secure a permit from the DEQ and install a liner and at a cost of about $1.7 million.
