The Environmental Protection Agency will ask property owners in Dewey-Humboldt to sample soil from their property as part of a cleanup plan for a Superfund mine site and smelter.
EPA officials say they’ve already cleaned up residential soils with the highest levels of contamination near the defunct Iron King Mine but they still need to examine areas that weren’t as severely affected.
The mine and Humboldt Smelter are part of an $85 million cleanup that includes 4 million cubic yards of mine tailings with high levels of arsenic and lead that has washed into drainages that flow into the Agua Fria River.
Lead emissions, mine dust and spills have also polluted residential areas. The mine dates to the early 1900s and produced zinc, silver, lead and gold.