Eureka Mills

Overview

Eureka Mills covers 450 acres in Utah's Tintic Mining District, about 80 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Silver, lead, gold, copper, and arsenic mining ran from 1870 to 1958, leaving waste rock piles and contaminated soil across what is now a residential and commercial town. EPA added the site to the National Priorities List in 2002 and removed it in 2018 after cleanup goals were met.

Lead is the confirmed contaminant of concern, found in soil and solid waste across two parts of the site. EPA studies found no unacceptable health risks from lead or arsenic in groundwater or surface water, so those media required no further action. The main exposure pathway that drove cleanup was people coming into contact with contaminated soil through eating, drinking, touching, or breathing it. Children under 7 and pregnant or nursing women face the greatest risk from lead in soil.

Cleanup work included grading and capping mine waste piles, digging out lead-contaminated soil from about 700 residential and commercial properties, and replacing 18 inches of soil cover. Institutional controls were also put in place. Construction wrapped up in September 2011. The site is divided into four operable units. Two have formal cleanup decisions: the East Eureka area received an engineered cap, excavation, and drainage controls, while the groundwater and ecological risk unit was determined to need no further action in 2011. The two remaining units covering West Eureka and Central Eureka do not yet have decision documents.

Operation and maintenance continues under state oversight. A five-year review completed in July 2023 found some operation and maintenance issues that still need to be addressed and noted that easements must be created at one operable unit. A performance measure for human exposure is listed as insufficient data, so firm conclusions about whether all human exposures are fully controlled cannot be drawn yet. The next five-year review is estimated between July and September 2028.

In October 2025, EPA released a new Lead Directive that changes blood lead levels of concern and soil screening levels for lead at Superfund sites. The site team is evaluating how this applies to Eureka Mills. EPA recommends that families near the site with young children whose soil has not been replaced have those children tested for lead annually. Decisions about any further action will draw on site-specific data and public input. Community members with questions can reach the EPA Community Involvement Coordinator or the state's Community Involvement Specialist using the contact information below.