LAKE COUNTY >> With CalRecycle and other independent contractors making significant progress on the Valley Fire cleanup, many Lake County residents are eager to return to their lots and begin rebuilding.
However, reconstruction may be delayed due to the unacceptable amount of arsenic that lies in the soil — or possibly the testing procedure for the heavy metal.
According to Environmental Health Director Ray Ruminski, there have been discrepancies in soil sample lab tests between companies used by California and private contractors, causing a slowdown in the rebuild permitting process.
“Some people are waiting a month,” Ruminski said. “Time is money…They’re waiting until this puzzle is solved.”
Contractors — notably Lake County Contractors Inc. (LCC) — are reporting higher arsenic levels at their sites than those in the soils cleaned by the state.
Mark Mitchell of LCC said that at least seven lot soil samples have gone beyond the threshold of the required 15 grams per kilogram. None of his tests have had results below 30 milligrams per kilogram; at least one of them showed readings above 70, he said.
Even on the same lot of a handled cleanup and dirt test sent in by CalRecycle, Mitchell claimed that his contracted lab yielded higher results than those performed by Sacramento’s.
“My clients are wondering what the hell is going on,” he said. “They get excited and then we get put on hold.”
Identifying the cause of these discrepancies has been difficult, Ruminski said, because there are multiple factors to rule out.
His department’s main focus is to determine how much arsenic, which is also the byproduct of burned pressure-treated wood, exists naturally in the ground. The heavy metal is found in dirt around the earth but the levels vary from place to place depending on geological history and topographical features.
To do this, Environmental Health is researching records of prior tests performed by the state and other entities such as the region’s geothermal businesses. It will also do some tests of its own.
Once those averages have been determined, the county may reset its cleanup goals for arsenic.
In fact, the state has done the same thing. According to CalRecycle Public Information Officer Lance Clug, it has already conducted 20 soil background tests and makes safety determinations based on that average. Anything more than double the average is not considered safe.
Ruminski said the 15 milligrams per kilogram goal was determined based on those background tests, which the state determined to approximately 7.5 milligrams per kilogram.
Both the county government and state have the authority to approve these tests; the former grants passage for independent contractors.
Another major area of attention is on the conduction of the tests. By using split soil samples — i.e. sending the same sample to the different labs — environmental health will be closer in determining if a lab is at fault.
As previously mentioned, the different cleanup agencies use their own labs. LCC uses Alpha Analytical Labratories in Ukiah and Adams Labs while CalRecycle sends their samples to an Alpha Analytical (different company) in Nevada.
Ruminski told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the results from these different labs will come in by next week.
“It’s too far apart to be a statistical anomaly,” he said at the board’s regular meeting. “It’s a discrepancy between one of the labs reporting either false high numbers or another lab reporting false low numbers.”
Despite the possibility of the low numbers being false and potentially nullifying those that have already received approval, Ruminski said he has not halted the approval process of testing and approval.
“I’m holding the ones above the cleanup goal,” he said. “We’re pretty certain that the high numbers are the problem.”
Alpha Labs in Ukiah was contacted for this story but declined to provide information.
