Cleaning Up: New series focuses on polluted sites

By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Toxics Cleanup Program

We try to highlight some of our Puget Sound work and Sound issues of interest in the “Around the Sound” blog series.

But there’s a lot of cleanup work being done throughout the state by the Toxics Cleanup Program that is not connected to Puget Sound. So this new “Cleaning Up” series will attempt to provide some helpful information on some of that other work.

For example, we’re working to map out the eventual cleanups for the Monte Cristo Mining Area in eastern Snohomish County and the Van Stone Mine in Stevens County in northeast Washington.

Cleanup funding will come from the state’s 2009 settlement with mining giant Asarco.

The Monte Cristo Mining Area actually includes three large mine complexes — the Mystery Mine, Justice Mine and Comet Mine — and many smaller mines. The photo shows part of these complexes.

You can go to the “Ghost Towns of Washington” website to find some interesting photos — both historical and more recent – of the Monte Cristo area.

And here’s a recent Ecology news release about the Van Stone Mine site.

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