PARTON 16 


The clean-up firm didn’t know what they would find once they dug into the ground. The specific language in the Closure and Post Closure Plan reads:

“The remaining soil will be sampled and analyzed. Soils which show any contamination will also be removed as hazardous waste by the contractor. In this manner, the entire pre- existing facility space will be decontaminated. Then the land will be left to revert to natural vegetation with no other future use allowed.”(18) 
       The clean-up cost was bid out at $165.00 per cubic yard, $65.50 per drum and $77.50 per drum of extremely hazardous material. Also included were heavy machinery cost and per diem for company employees.(17) An undated UA document of the same time period reads:
“Chemical Waste Management, Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona has already been contacted and has submitted an informal estimate of $500,000 to carry-out the removal.”(18) 
       If we fast-forward the paper trail, another UA Department of Risk Management document, dated April 21, 1993 hammers home the point, stating: 
“In 1986, exhumation of the landfill was estimated to cost anywhere from seven to ten million dollars. In addition to the cost, such an undertaking would be exceptionally hazardous due to the nature of materials within the landfill, and the manner in which early burials were conducted.”(19) 
At this point, the sheer magnitude of how much it was going to cost to clean up the site became clear to the UA administrators. In addition, two other situations interceded to further complicate the landfill’s planned exhumation. 

       First, a turf war ensued between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency. The UA’s toxic waste/radioactive waste dump had become a radioactive toxic waste dump. A June 14,1984 letter from Bryan R. Westerman Ph.D., Director of the UA’s Radiation Control Office reads: 

“The Executive staff will shortly be presented with recommendations from Risk