Craig Daily Press

The question:

Who will pay for the ground contamination removal conducted by the Moffat County Road and Bridge Department at the construction site of the new Steamboat Springs Transit Park-and-Ride facility, which is being built by the east Kum and Go?

Originally, the answer to the question was simple: Moffat County.

But recent developments have made that answer unclear, said county attorney Kathleen Taylor, and it could be the county or the city of the Steamboat Springs.

The original answer was part of a contractual agreement between the county and the city of Steamboat Springs after the city found contamination at the site — which was the old County Shop’s location — “that had to (be) reported to the state and remediated,” Taylor said.

“Our negotiations were that Moffat County would be responsible for the cleanup of the discovered contamination,” Taylor said, “which was defined as hazardous waste, and the cost relating to any other hazardous (waste) that wasn’t caused by the buyer, but was discovered within five years.”

Enter the confusion.

During the demolition and excavation of the site in December, additional contaminated soil was found. Moffat County was contacted and asked to clean it up — a cleanup site initially thought to be about 200 cubic yards. The Road and Bridge Department responded, but the cleanup site turned out to be much larger — closer to 2,000 cubic yards.

Because of the larger clean-up, “we asked for a site visit,” Taylor said, “just so we were sure that, in fact, the soil we were hauling out was contaminated. At that visit, the question arose of whether the soil met the definition of hazardous waste.

“That is the question we are still wrestling with.”

If the contaminated soil is not defined as hazardous waste, it could mean the county would be off the hook for paying for its removal.

Taylor said if Moffat County is contractually obligated to clean up the site, the county will uphold that responsibility.

“However, if it’s determined that this particular cleanup does not meet the definitions of the contract, then it would not be our responsibility,” she said.

On Tuesday, the Moffat County Commission instructed Taylor to have an alternate engineering firm, CGRS out of Fort Collins, look at the land to determine whether the land in question is defined as contaminated or hazardous waste.

“If there is a question mark as to whether it is hazardous or whether it is contaminated, then we need another engineering firm other than ours” to look at it, Commissioner Saed Tayyara said.

In addition to that, the commissioners agreed to continue to clean up the land.

“Because it is up in the air, I think we may need to haul it away just in case we are liable for paying someone for what we can do ourselves,” Commissioner Tom Gray said. “And if it’s the case that it is not hazardous, then we will charge it back to Steamboat.”

If the city of Steamboat Springs is found to be responsible, the cost to charge the city is another topic the commissioners held off until additional information is available. The two options mentioned were at cost or at fair market value. What these numbers equal is unknown at this point, Road and Bridge Director Bill Mack said.

As of Tuesday, the Road and Bridge Department had hauled out 746 cubic yards. The Road and Bridge Department’s clean-up of the site is expected to be finished within the week, Mack said.

Another issue to be sorted out is if, and how much, the city of Steamboat Springs will compensate Moffat County for the steel beams used to construct the old County Shop. According to the contract, those beams were supposed to be set aside so Moffat County could reuse them if need be.

“In the course of the demolition of the building, the steel was not salvageable,” Taylor said. “So, we’re in the process of talking to the city of Steamboat Springs as to what their position is going to be in reimbursing us.”

The county did not have a requested amount for reimbursement; rather, the county is waiting to see what value the city of Steamboat Springs puts on it, and go on with negotiations from there.

The commissioners first agreed to sell the shop, at 616 E. Victory Way, and its 1.4 acres to Steamboat Transit for $220,000 in September 2005.

Steamboat Transit is planning to build a heated facility that houses 50 parking spaces as well as room for five buses, which will stay the night in Craig.

The original cost projection was just more than $2 million, but that has changed.

“There is no defined number,” on what it will cost, said Bob Robichaud, facility manger with the city of Steamboat Springs. “We keep finding things in the ground. You start taking up the building slab, and in some places, you find two layers of building slab, and we keep finding contamination. … So, it’s a moving target.”

Robichaud said the original goal was to have the facility constructed “when the weather was still ugly,” but its looking more like summer 2008.

Despite these questions, Tay­lor said the contract and the facility are not in jeopardy, and that she wanted to assure people that resolving these issues is a collaborative process.

“We want all the taxpayers, both in the city of Steamboat Springs and in Moffat County, to know that it is our hope to work amicably to resolve all of these issues,” Taylor said.

Jerry Raehal can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 204, or at jraehal@craigdailypress.com