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OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Tacoma City Council Study Session: Tacoma Smelter Plume Yearly Update and City Manager's Report - July 8, 2025

City Council Study Session — Tuesday, July 8, 2025

BodyTacoma, Washington

SessionCity Council Study Session

DateTuesday, July 8, 2025

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 3:01:07

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:12

Councilmember Bushnell.

0:13

Present.

0:14

Deputy Mayor Daniels.

0:15

Absent Councilmember Diaz.

0:17

Councilmember Hines.

0:18

Absent Councilmember Rumba.

0:20

Here.

0:21

Councilmember Sidalgay.

0:22

Councilmember Scott.

0:23

Here.

0:24

Councilmember Walker.

0:25

Here.

0:25

Mayor Woodards here.

0:26

The study session material sent you at 11.

0:29

Thank you.

0:29

Our first agenda item is the Tacoma Smelter Plume annual update.

0:35

And I would like to call on Justin Zacharin.

0:39

Correct.

0:39

Oh my goodness, Department of Ecology.

0:50

All right.

0:52

Thank you, Mayor Woodards and the City Council of Tacoma.

0:55

Pleasure to be here again.

0:57

This will be our 12th update since starting our yard program in 2013.

1:02

And as the mayor has mentioned, we have Sarah Miller here.

1:08

She is our outreach coordinator for the Tacoma Smelter Plume, and we'll be speaking about a portion of that work.

1:15

So hey, there we go.

1:20

Lively clicker here.

1:22

So we like to provide you with a quick history of the Tacoma Smelter Plume, how it came to be here, and if you're not familiar with the contamination, what that means for public health.

1:35

Also updates to the budget for our program.

1:38

And an update to the uh outreach programs that we do with the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department.

1:47

So many of you may be familiar with the Sarko Smelter, but maybe not, as it's been shut down for nearly 40 years.

1:56

And maybe fading from memory.

2:15

It started as a lead smelter and then transitioned to a copper smelter shortly after production.

2:21

And that copper smelter specialized in ores, they were high in arsenic.

2:34

And the purpose of that stack was to remove that pollution from the proximity of Tacoma and put it elsewhere.

2:43

And it did that really well by prevailing winds.

2:48

So a Sarco operated the smelter uh for most of that 100 years.

2:54

And in 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency declared the smelter uh part of one of the first Superfund sites in the nation.

3:04

The EPA has focused on cleanup of the smelter site.

3:07

Um and you can see the product of that cleanup uh in what is now considered Point Rustin, the development.

3:14

Um and they also focused on the operational unit for the residential properties and one mile radius around the former smelter by uh removing contaminated soil in those uh most highly contaminated properties in that area.

3:31

Uh in 1993, the smokestack was demolished.

3:34

Um there's some really great YouTube videos of that.

3:36

So I hope you've you checked those out.

3:38

Maybe some of you were there.

3:39

Yeah.

3:40

As a kid, we we that was our Sunday trip to go through the tunnel where the smokestack was on where the water leaked through, and we got to honk the horn in the tunnel.

3:54

So on the screen, we have a map of the Tacoma Smelter Plume.

3:59

This is uh uh probabilistic map.

4:02

Um it's it's using sampling data from undeveloped areas throughout the plume to provide us with predicted levels of arsenic um throughout the the area.

4:12

Um as you can see the arsenic levels um have higher concentrations closer to the smelter, the former smelter site, uh which is uh marked as a red triangle uh at Point Rustin, or sorry, in the Rustin area.

4:26

Um the the concentrations decrease as it distance gets farther away from the smelter site and tends to follow the prevailing wind patterns of the region.

4:37

Um this plume is very large, a thousand square miles.

4:42

Um it incorpor it encompasses uh 19 local jurisdictions, uh Thurston County, Pierce County, King County, parts of Kit Sap, um, and roughly 300,000 parcels.

5:01

So ecology is concerned about the contamination from the smelter because although it is not a high highly contaminated area, it's what we would call lower contamination.

5:14

It does present a long-term risk to inhabitants in the area.

5:19

Arsenic is a carcinogen.

5:21

It can impact people's health by contributing to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease later in life.

5:28

And then lead, of course, is a neurotoxin that can impact the development of nervous systems, especially in children, and can impact IQ.

5:41

And presents a real problem for children that are zero to six years of age because I don't know if you're familiar with that age group, but they tend to not discriminate what they put in their mouth.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Procedural█████████████████████████████████████████████52%

Pending Litigation███████████████████22%

Environmental Protection████████████████19%

Public Engagement████5%

Budget Equity Analysis█1%

Public Health█1%

Summary of Proceedings

Tacoma City Council Study Session: Tacoma Smelter Plume Yearly Update and City Manager's Report - July 8, 2025

The Tacoma City Council held a study session on July 8, 2025, at 12:00 PM. The primary briefing item was the annual update on the Tacoma Smelter Plume cleanup and outreach efforts, presented by Justin Zakoren, Yard Program Manager, and Sarah Miller, Outreach and Education Coordinator, from the Washington Department of Ecology. The session also included a brief City Manager's report and concluded with an executive session for potential litigation and evaluating a public employment applicant.

Discussion Items

Tacoma Smelter Plume Yearly Update: Justin Zakoren presented the history of the ASARCO smelter (operated for nearly 100 years, closed in 1985), the resulting 1,000-square-mile contamination plume covering approximately 300,000 parcels in 19 jurisdictions. The plume is a Superfund site; arsenic and lead are primary contaminants. The Department of Ecology has a cleanup settlement account funded by $95 million from ASARCO bankruptcy, of which about two-thirds has been spent, leaving roughly $30 million. The yard program began in 2013 and has replaced soil in about 400 properties in the service area (southern Vashon Island to Point Defiance and south of Highway 16). To date, 1,138 properties in Tacoma and the former EPA study area have been found to qualify for cleanup (average arsenic ≥100 ppm or lead ≥500 ppm), with about 400 completed. The program uses environmental health disparity rankings to prioritize neighborhoods. Approximately 15% of eligible homeowners refuse cleanup (115 properties). The technical assistance program has sampled 293 acres in Tacoma, cleaned up 90 acres, and has 9 active projects. Sarah Miller covered outreach: annual mailers to 9,700 households in the yard program area; the health department runs the "Get Covered Kit" program (provides wood chips, nail brushes, dust cloths) and has received 90 requests in 2025 from a recent mailer. School hand-washing demonstrations are conducted at Downing, Point Defiance, and Sherman elementary schools. New sampling at dog parks (Point Defiance, Chambers Creek, Powderworks) found high arsenic/lead at Point Defiance; wood chips and signs recommended to Parks Tacoma. Future challenges include funding depletion within 5–10 years, likely leaving ~250 properties uncleaned; plans include seeking state legislative funding and working with realtors to improve disclosure (e.g., adding a line to Form 17). Councilmembers asked questions about plant uptake, ongoing outreach, and legislative options. Councilmember Rumba expressed support for amending Form 17 to require disclosure of smelter plume contamination before home purchase.
City Manager's Weekly Report: Interim City Manager Hyun Kim noted a ceremonial item recognizing Lincoln High School girls football team on the regular agenda, no changes to the agenda, and public comment opportunities.
Executive Session: The council unanimously voted to convene an executive session for up to 60 minutes to discuss potential litigation and evaluate a public employment applicant. No further business was conducted after the session except adjournment.

Key Outcomes

No formal votes were taken on the smelter plume presentation; the update was informational.
Councilmember Rumba offered to work with Ecology and state legislators (including Speaker Jenkins) to pursue adding smelter plume disclosure to the statewide Form 17 seller disclosure. Ecology agreed to follow up internally.
The city manager's report was received without action.
The council entered executive session with a unanimous vote.

Meeting Transcript

Councilmember Bushnell. Present. Deputy Mayor Daniels. Absent Councilmember Diaz. Councilmember Hines. Absent Councilmember Rumba. Here. Councilmember Sidalgay. Councilmember Scott. Here. Councilmember Walker. Here. Mayor Woodards here. The study session material sent you at 11. Thank you. Our first agenda item is the Tacoma Smelter Plume annual update. And I would like to call on Justin Zacharin. Correct. Oh my goodness, Department of Ecology. All right. Thank you, Mayor Woodards and the City Council of Tacoma. Pleasure to be here again. This will be our 12th update since starting our yard program in 2013. And as the mayor has mentioned, we have Sarah Miller here. She is our outreach coordinator for the Tacoma Smelter Plume, and we'll be speaking about a portion of that work. So hey, there we go. Lively clicker here. So we like to provide you with a quick history of the Tacoma Smelter Plume, how it came to be here, and if you're not familiar with the contamination, what that means for public health. Also updates to the budget for our program. And an update to the uh outreach programs that we do with the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department. So many of you may be familiar with the Sarko Smelter, but maybe not, as it's been shut down for nearly 40 years. And maybe fading from memory. It started as a lead smelter and then transitioned to a copper smelter shortly after production. And that copper smelter specialized in ores, they were high in arsenic. And the purpose of that stack was to remove that pollution from the proximity of Tacoma and put it elsewhere. And it did that really well by prevailing winds. So a Sarco operated the smelter uh for most of that 100 years. And in 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency declared the smelter uh part of one of the first Superfund sites in the nation. The EPA has focused on cleanup of the smelter site. Um and you can see the product of that cleanup uh in what is now considered Point Rustin, the development. Um and they also focused on the operational unit for the residential properties and one mile radius around the former smelter by uh removing contaminated soil in those uh most highly contaminated properties in that area. Uh in 1993, the smokestack was demolished. Um there's some really great YouTube videos of that. So I hope you've you checked those out. Maybe some of you were there. Yeah. As a kid, we we that was our Sunday trip to go through the tunnel where the smokestack was on where the water leaked through, and we got to honk the horn in the tunnel. So on the screen, we have a map of the Tacoma Smelter Plume. This is uh uh probabilistic map. Um it's it's using sampling data from undeveloped areas throughout the plume to provide us with predicted levels of arsenic um throughout the the area.

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