Ruston N Tacoma

For nearly 100 years, the Asarco Company operated a copper smelter in Tacoma. The 90 acre facility sat on the border of north Tacoma and Ruston, along the waterfront. Air emissions and other smelter contaminants polluted the property, the surrounding neighborhoods, and a 1,000 square mile area called the Tacoma Smelter Plume.

In the early 1980s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began a Superfund cleanup of the site. To manage this large and complex cleanup, EPA divided the cleanup into four "operable units." The Ruston North Tacoma Study Area is one of these units.  It consists of mostly residential neighborhoods in a one-mile radius around the smelter property.

Soil Cleanup
Over 20 years (until 2012), EPA sampled soils at 3,570 properties and cleaned up 2,436. Cleanup focused on the most highly-contaminated soils, with levels over 230 parts per million (ppm) arsenic. Today, Ecology is doing further cleanup, focusing on yards that have over 100 ppm arsenic or 500 ppm lead. More about current cleanup efforts

Soil Sampling and Cleanup Database
To find out if a property was sampled or cleaned up, visit the Arsenic in Soils Database.

Health Information
Contact the Dirt Alert Program at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. E-mail DirtAlert@tpchd.org or call 253-798-3503.