Jim Christiansen announced that this would be his last Stakeholder Group meeting. He will be leaving the Upper Silver Creek project. He announced that Peggy Churchill will be taking his place as EPA Project Manager for the cleanup. He said that Peggy shares his style of doing things by keeping things calm and quiet. In light of the transition, Jim asked the group to speak about how they felt the project was going.

Dana Williams said that, overall, the project is going well. He said the citizens are calm and the perception is good regarding the cleanup. He feels everyone involved knows more now about “what we’ve got and what we have to get done”. Ultimately, he would still like to see Prospector Square taken off CERCLIS. He said the Soil Ordinance at Prospector seemed to be working well, noting that the $500 credit from the city to the homeowners really helped get people involved.

Tim Ingwell added that the Stakeholder Group should continue, as it is essential to what needs to be done at Silver Maple Claims. Kerry Gee remembered feeling “uneasy” when the group first started meetings. The meetings were “tremendously more stressful” than they are now, he said. He noted that people in the community are still interested in the cleanup, despite our recent meetings where hardly anybody showed up. He said he gets a lot of phone calls from people whenever they hear Jim, Peggy, or other Stakeholders on the radio, especially when they hear something they don’t like. This is important to keep in mind, he said, because the cleanup will continue to move forward and there are still huge issues to tackle. He said overall the cleanup has been good for the community.

Kerry also said that the watershed investigation has been a big victory for science in the watershed. He feels we now know the specifics of what we need to do, like dealing with the zinc at Richardson Flat and moving dirt at Empire Canyon. And, he added, we’re doing it logically.

John Whitehead said that the Stakeholder Group has dovetailed nicely with the TMDL process. “Everyone agrees that the cleanup issue is there and we have to do this,” he said. “This group can keep the momentum for it going.”

Mo Slam, Sally Elliot, and Bob Wells all agreed that the Stakeholder Group process has been good. Mo said he liked the fact that it took a process that used to look at things piece by piece and now looks at it as a whole. Bob Wells said he didn’t believe at first that the process could work, but believes the Group has worked well.

Jim Christiansen said that some of the toughest cleanup issues still remain. But the Day Lodge is an example, he said, that we can get a good common sense solution rather than a long, painful process. “You can read about those in the papers,” he said, “but you don’t read about Park City.”

Richardson Flat

Kerry Gee recounted the Proposed Plan public meeting held in September. He said just 2 or 3 people attended other than agency people and we received a few comments regarding moving materials from Empire Pass to Richardson Flat. The comments are in a responsiveness summary that will be issued with the Record of Decision for Richardson Flat soon. He also said a cost agreement and a consent decree are coming. This winter they’ll be looking at what kind of work to do at Richardson Flat this summer, then they’ll look at future uses which are still up in the air – golf, recreation sites are possible, but nothing is really decided.

There was a small discussion about the Talisker Corporation. Dana said he was impressed so far. Kerry said the company is the same, just with different shareholders. He said Talisker is very committed to the cleanup. Tom Bakaly added that Talisker applied to the city for a conditional use permit. There will be a hearing on Dec. 8 before the planning commission. If appealed, it will go to the City Council in early January.

Dana noted that one of the council members is part of the Marsac group looking at an option of sending trucks from Empire Pass down Royal Street instead of Marsac on their way to Richardson Flat, which he feels would be “ten times worse”.

Bob Wells said the issue really is not contamination but the trucks. Most seemed to agree. Ron Ivey said there are options being considered such as brake check stations and highway patrol inspection stickers on the trucks. Dana said delay could happen if the council wants a new study on the make-up of the material coming down in the trucks. Kerry noted that all of the dirt is coming from the Empire Canyon stream channel and the area of the Flagstaff development, none from the Daly West mine dump. In other words, it’s already material that’s already been moved once. Jim Christiansen said that EPA will support “whatever you all work out”.

Jim said that the consent decree is just an agreement between EPA and UPCM. But the natural resources damages settlement concerning Richardson Flat could be a difficult process to work out what’s fair compensation to the government. He said there should be some plan, however, that could be worked out.

Empire Canyon

Kerry Gee said that Empire Canyon cleanup got started late – it’s about 30 percent complete to date. There is about 4,500 linear feet of drainage channel to restore within the Empire Canyon. This summer he said they’ll be able to complete the stream channel including Walker and Webster channels and work on the surrounding mine dumps, etc… In the summer of 2006, they’ll complete last couple 1000 feet of stream channel just above the Daly Canyon and then be done completely with Empire Canyon.

Jim Christiansen said that Empire Canyon has been on CERCLIS since 1997 and Richardson Flat since 1981, and both will be cleaned up in the next two years.

Fish Consumption Advisory

John Whitehead said they found that 25 percent of the fish in the lower part of the canyon have elevated arsenic, but the advisory went out for all of Silver Creek. He passed out copies of a news release and fish advisory. He said they’ll continue to monitor every two years and will look at Deer Creek and Poison Creek - next time will be 2006. Ron Ivey noted that he’d like to see achievable stream standards set and not focus on the fish study because the fish will be taken care of if we focus on stream standard. Jim Christiansen said he wasn’t sure if achieving the water quality standard was “doable”, but said that what we’re trying to do is make a resource what it can be, and if we meet the water quality standard – great.

John Whitehead said that the original TMDL was for cadmium and zinc and won’t change because of the arsenic found in the fish. The arsenic, he said is mostly being seen in the biota, not in the water column, so they are probably picking it up from the sediments. Dana said he would like to see phosphorus/nitrate study because of the development and golf courses above. Jim said that the lower Silver Creek Meadow area is not in CERCLIS, so the Group should come up with creative cleanup strategies for it.

John passed around a report titled “Health Consultation: Fish Sampling in Silver Creek Analysis of Metals and Potential Health Impacts”.

Soils Ordinance

Tom Bakaly gave a summary of the “Soils Ordinance Area Environmental Management System 2004 Annual Report” to the Group:

· 48 properties were issued a certificate of compliance

· 10 properties participated in Top Soil Assistance Program and got $500 from the City.

· 34 properties volunteered to be sampled – XRF

· 4 did not meet EMS standards but have been corrected

· 24 properties had wet chemistry and all were within the EMS requirement. These had been capped years ago

· all but 4 properties that the city knows of are in compliance.

Dana said that he thinks the community is well-educated about the Ordinance now. There were a substantial amount of residents who went and got blood tests, he said. He also said that the real estate community has been very helpful and involved.

Silver Maple Claims

Tim Ingwell said that BLM has contracted with Ken Kolm of Argonne Report fame to do a groundwater study. Tom Bakaly asked about the motive for the groundwater study: Was it a PRP identification motive or purely technical? There was a short discussion about this.

Prospector Drain

Tom Bakaly said the pilot program to reduce zinc has resulted in a reduction from 6.2 milligrams to 2.6 milligrams. He said the City will discuss biocells at a meeting on Dec. 15. John W. asked about cadmium. Tom B. did not know but would let him know after the 15^th. Ron Ivey noted that there is a flow meter at the drain too that shows little fluctuation in flow. The biocell will run through the winter. Tom Bakaly asked Tim Ingwell why BLM did not participate with the biocell, and Tim answered that BLM had some concerns that were not answered such as who would maintain it.

Lower Silver Creek

Anne Tillia discussed the Nov. ’01 Innovative Assessment. And said there is a reoccurring question: What’s there and how bad is it?

She passed out a summary of data collected in the past.

Conclusion

Jim said that there would be less frequent Stakeholder meetings because there is more of a need at this point in the process for smaller, technical groups. Peggy said she would like to set the next meeting for February.