What is the process for soil sampling and cleanup?
Watch a step-by-step video on the process, or you can read about it below.

The Sampling Process
Once we receive and process your access agreement, a professional soil program representative will call you to schedule a convenient time to visit your property.

In order to accurately determine the concentrations of various materials in your soil Shaw will take several samples from your front, back and side yard, depending on the size of each yard. Sample holes will be approximately three inches wide and taken at various depths. Shaw also will inspect for visual materials associated with the former Blackwell smelter, such as material that may have been used on your property for fill.

In addition to the yard areas specified by the plan, while at your property, Shaw will also identify and sample areas that may warrant special attention, such as children's play areas, swing sets or sandboxes. After the samples are collected, our professional field teams will carefully replace the soil in the sample holes.

The sampling program used by Freeport-McMoRan Corporation is consistent with EPA guidelines and is explained in a work plan reviewed and approved by ODEQ. The EPA's experts specifically recommend using composite samples for residential yard sampling. Composite samples combine sample material from several locations within a yard, and are designed to determine the average concentrations of arsenic, cadmium and lead throughout that yard area.

This approach to sampling recognizes that people typically do not confine themselves to a single location within a yard. To address the possible exceptions, however, individual samples are collected and analyzed individually if an area has bare soil, or has visible smelter material, or is a child play area.

The soil sampling results, however, do not identify where any increased level of metals came from. The soil sample results represent the combined contribution of metals from various sources in Blackwell, including lead paint, leaded gasoline emissions, ammunition reloading, batteries, solder, vinyl miniblinds, ceramics and natural background levels