Residential soil programs for historic smelters: a framework for managing offsite legacy impacts in closure and long-term stewardship

Authors: Kienholz, J; Ramirez-Dias, S Download Paper Open access courtesy of:

DOI https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2615_77

Cite As:
Kienholz, J & Ramirez-Dias, S 2026, 'Residential soil programs for historic smelters: a framework for managing offsite legacy impacts in closure and long-term stewardship', in AB Fourie, G Boggs, J Heyes & M Tibbett (eds), Mine Closure 2026: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 1-7, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2615_77



Abstract:
Historic smelters for metals such as copper often operated in an era before emissions control equipment was commonly used; air emissions often deposited metal-bearing particles on nearby soils for decades. To address potential human health concerns from legacy particulate-metal emissions, responsible parties have often entered into voluntary programs with the appropriate state agency. Since 2013, GHD has led the development, implementation and management of comprehensive soil programs across 6 US cities and towns for responsible parties. The initiative integrates community engagement, soil sampling, data management, and remediation (soil removal and replacement) within a unified and scalable framework, supporting thousands of parcels across multiple active townsites. A hallmark of a soil program is its outreach strategy, centred on transparency, responsiveness and culturally informed communication. Tailored public-facing efforts – including door-to-door engagement, community open houses and multilingual materials – have achieved participation rates exceeding 80% in some communities and helped secure long-term social licence for these projects that may continue for more than a decade. The program leverages a robust central database to manage millions of data records specific to thousands of land parcels or properties across multiple active townsites. This structured approach provides a repeatable, evidencebased model that can be adapted to similar projects worldwide. This paper highlights the lessons learnt from largescale soil programs, including integrating outreach with technical workflows, maintaining data defensibility over long program durations and managing multistakeholder expectations. These soil programs demonstrate how technically rigorous, communitycentric remediation can protect public health while strengthening trust between industry and local communities.

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