The Park City School District is continuing its work to demolish Treasure Mountain Junior High School despite the Utah Department of Environmental Quality’s ongoing investigation into alleged groundwater dumping.
District officials on Tuesday said they met with construction partners, environmental professionals and the Utah Division of Water Quality in early January to review how the groundwater encountered on the property should be managed. The water, which was found just outside the main construction zone, needs to be removed in order to repair a sewer line, which will connect to the new sports facilities.
The district’s contractor, Hogan and Associates Construction, in a press release said the Utah Division of Water Quality determined the groundwater “contains lead and arsenic at levels higher than what the (Division of Water Quality) considers acceptable for discharge back into the ground or nearby creeks.” State officials recommended the district obtain a specific groundwater surface permit to properly remove the liquid from the site.
In the meantime, however, contractors are able to continue with the demolition process by pumping the groundwater into four tanks, which will help the contaminated material separate from the water. The water will be stored in the tanks until the permit is issued, and the stored water will be sampled by an independent environmental consultant to determine its contamination level.
“Depending on the results of the water testing, an appropriate treatment plan, if any, will be presented to the state for approval prior to issuance of the (groundwater) permit,” Hogan’s press release said. “Once the permit is issued, the water will be treated, if necessary, and then discharged back into the ground, creeks or canals.”
The district is currently waiting on its sampling results and the permit.
The press release from Hogan and Associates Construction also touched on the previous discharge of groundwater into a nearby creek, saying the on-site environmental consultant sampled and tested the groundwater and reported it wasn’t hazardous.
“If the results of testing had indicated contaminated water, Hogan would have followed all (Division of Water Quality) guidelines, including obtaining a (groundwater) permit,” the press release said. “Moving forward, Hogan’s intention and plan is to strictly follow the state’s (Division of Water Quality) guidelines as described above. Hogan will work closely with its project partner, RMEC Environmental, to apply for the required permit and to consult on any environmental concerns that are associated with dewatering.”
The state agency initiated the investigation in mid-October after an anonymous tip reported the district’s contractors had dumped contaminated groundwater into Silver Creek on the east side of the demolition site. It was the second reported environmental issue on the site, with the district having already received a non-compliance advisory related to asbestos abatement.
To remove the groundwater, the contractor installed a weir tank, which stores and separates sediments and other particles from groundwater and allows construction crews to control the water’s flow during discharge on the property, according to an explanation of the incident from the school district.
The district said the tank was then connected to a private stormwater system under the direction of the site’s prior environmental consultant. Contractors allegedly pumped hundreds of gallons of water into the stormwater system for multiple hours a day in September and October.
But the weir tank wasn’t used for dumping groundwater at all on Oct. 10, according to school officials. Instead, the contracting company chose to discharge the water directly into Silver Creek.
School officials in December could not provide answers as to why the tank was disassembled or why contractors opted to dump directly into the creek. The documentation and explanation provided by the district also does not include information on why the change happened.
The state’s investigation into the issue is ongoing, and the results are expected to be published sometime in the next few months.