2004/07/14 Council Agenda Packet

8_ WHEREAS,Ecology and the Snohomish Health District have found it necessary to institute health advisories and community protection measures information regarding the Everett Smelter Site, which have been translated into five different languages to accommodate the cultural diversity of the residents; WHEREAS,the FCAP identified the most contaminated area of the Everett Smelter Site as the Former Arsenic Trioxide Processing Area where the former smelter was located, with soil concentrations of arsenic as high as 73 percent; and WHEREAS,Asarco Incorporated ("Asarco"), an owner and operator of the smelter facility,purchased and demolished to their foundations the residences located in the Former Arsenic Trioxide Processing Area and has fenced such area as an interim action for the protection of public health and safety("Fenced Area"); and WHEREAS,based on the conditions identified above,the Fenced Area is an area of substantial physical dilapidation, deterioration, and contamination in an unsafe condition currently unfit for human habitation;and WHEREAS,the Everett comprehensive plan places a high priority on safe,healthy,and attractive residential areas that encourage affordable housing and protect neighborhood character; and WHEREAS,the residential area adjacent to and including the Fenced Area is designated "1.3 - Single Family detached"in the Everett Comprehensive Plan (the "Residential Area next to the Former Asarco Smelter"); and WHEREAS,the Residential Area next to the Former Asarco Smelter was a functioning neighborhood that has been severely and adversely impacted by the former Asarco Smelter contamination and by the demolition of more than 20 homes within the Fenced Area,which present condition depreciates property values,retards the provision of housing accommodations, constitutes and economic and social liability, and substantially impairs the planned growth of the City; WHEREAS,in March 2003,Ecology in consultation with the City of Everett issued an amendment to the FCAP and SEPA Addendum in 2003 to provide for an off-site disposal remedy for the Fenced Area that would allow for future single family residential use of the Fenced Area, in order to remove hazardous soils and contamination from the area and to promote housing and restore the neighborhood character of the area; and WHEREAS,a few properties within the Residential Area next to the Former Asarco Smelter have been cleaned up,and nothing in this resolution is intended to, or shall be construed to,diminish in any way the restored quality of these remediated properties; and WHEREAS, Chapter 35.81 RCW,the state Community Renewal Law, authorizes the City of Everett to use the means provided in that law to restore areas susceptible of rehabilitation "in such a manner that the conditions and evils hereinbefore enumerated may be eliminated, 8 Page 2 of 3