Yakama Nation awarded $295,000 for claim over former Yakima landfill

YAKIMA – The Yakama Nation was awarded $295,000 in past costs for its role in the cleanup of hazardous materials at the site of a former landfill on Yakima city property.

The judgment was issued Dec. 13 in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Washington following an offer from the city.

The award reimburses the Yakama Nation for the time and costs associated with its response to the leaching of hazardous substances into the land at the former landfill site, including heavy oils, lead, arsenic and nitrate, as found by the Department of Ecology.

It provided the city is liable for future costs incurred by the tribe for cleanup at the site, Yakama Nation Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis said in a release.

The former landfill sits on two parcels adjacent to the Yakima River east of North Eighth Street and north of East E Street. The area is part of the Boise Cascade mill site economic development project and the East-West Corridor, and the Yakima River is a fishing place for tribal people, a right protected by treaty.

The city used the land as a disposal site for solid waste between 1963 and 1972, when the Yakima County Health Department shut down the landfill.