Proposal To Clean Toxic Dust Met With Skepticism

Joe Cashman says he can turn a pile of dangerous mining dust into marketable substances.

But U.S. Forest Service officials are skeptical, and have ordered the dust - laced with arsenic, lead, copper and zinc - hauled to a hazardous-waste dump.

Cashman says he has developed an effective process to extract metals from dust and ore while rendering the residue harmless. He planned to use the technique at his mill, three miles west of town, where the toxic dust was dumped by the ton more than 10 years ago.

To guarantee cleanup if his process left a toxic mess, Forest Service officials demanded that Cashman post a $1 million bond, an amount he said he could not afford.

Cashman attracted attention when the government announced that Atlantic Richfield Co. is paying to clean up about 500 tons of flue dust from his claim in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The dust is believed to have come from filters at Arco’s defunct copper smelter at Anaconda, Mont.

Cashman told reporters Friday he would have cleaned up all 2,500 tons of ore and dust five years ago if he had been allowed to run it through his mill.

“I just want to work and produce,” Cashman said. “Not the Forest Service. They just want me out of here.”

At the same time, he offered a tangled, incomplete explanation of how the toxic dust got onto his property.

Cashman holds a few mining claims in the area and says he has processed some gold and copper ore at the mill he built on 10 acres that he claimed under the federal mining law of 1872.

His plans to process the 2,500 tons of ore and dust collapsed five years ago because of the bond demand.

Since then, his mill has been idle, the dust and ore piled 5 feet high and covered mostly with plastic at the site.

Pat Toman, a Forest Service official in charge of overseeing the cleanup, said Cashman never obtained permission to store the material on his claim.

Toman said he still hoped to find a way to enable Cashman to process the 2,000 tons of ore at the mill but defended the bond requirement.

He explained that if Cashman processes the material with a government permit, the agency might lose its chance to charge Arco for cleanup costs and taxpayers might wind up paying the bill.

Federal officials said as much as 24 percent of the dust is arsenic, 5.5 percent is lead, 4.5 percent is copper and 1 percent is zinc.

Cashman said he believed the dust was shipped from Montana to Wyoming and then to the old Asarco smelter in Tacoma for processing but apparently was rejected at each stop.

About 1984, he said, someone trucked it to Sultan and dumped it on the property of a small business.

Cashman tested it and concluded that he could render it safe but wouldn’t make a profit.

About then, he said, “it appeared here” at his mill. Cashman denied requesting it but acknowledged paying the trucker who brought it.

Cashman tried talking Anaconda into hiring him to treat 500,000 tons of similar residue at the mine’s Superfund cleanup site, but the company chose another disposal method.

Now Cashman is trying to demonstrate his chemical smelting method to a big waste disposal company. He said it would render safe all kinds of toxic wastes and reduce disposal costs.