EPA Shares Final Plan For FMC Clean-Up

After taking hundreds of public comments, the Environmental Protection Agency has come to their final decision on how to clean-up the FMC superfund site.

The EPA said elemental phosphate and radio nucleides have severerely contaminated the site just outside Pocatello.

“The FMC site is a contaminated site that does pose risks to both people and the environment as it currently sits,? EPA Regional Administrator Dennis McLerran said.

The plan is to contain the contamination, putting caps over the contaminated ground, preventing it from polluting groundwater or spreading.

But that’s not what the Sho-Ban tribe wanted to hear.

Tribal members asked the EPA for a plan that would do more than contain, but get rid of the problem entirely, removing the hazardous material.

Louis Archeleta is an engineer who worked at FMC and is a tribal member. He said the EPA’s plan is shortsighted.

“As a tribal member I’m looking at the next 10,000 years, and the EPA isn’t going to exist in 10,000 years. Who’s going to protect the people then?? Archeletta said.

The EPA said Cap and Contain is a tried and true method, and that the idea of removing the elemental phosphate, or treating it, is prohibitively expensive and even dangerous to those who’d do the work.

“So making sure that it is properly contained and controlled is important to avoid both risks to people near the site and on the site, and workers that might be involved in constructing the remedies,? McLerran said.

Even if removing the material is much more expensive, Archuleta said it’s what needs to be done.

“FMC has extracted many, many billions of dollars in profit from that plant. And it’s time for them to put a few of them back to clean it up,? Archeletta said.

As part of the final plan, the EPA said it will pay an independent group to reevaluate whether it is technologically feasible to remove or treat the phosphate.

The EPA said it will likely take more than a year until the physical clean-up work starts.