PRESIDENT'S   MESSAGE
	A Home for Intermountain Medical Center; Murray Receives Phoenix Award for Smelter Site Cleanup
In 2003, Intermountain Health Care broke ground for its new medical center campus in Murray; a $560 million development built on what was once a blighted and environmentally dangerous area. The economic impact of the new medical center and the growth expected to follow it will have a tremendous impact on the state’s economy. Today’s feature story covers the effort to clean up and redevelop the Murray Smelter Site and the presentation of the EPA’s prestigious Phoenix Award to Murray City for its leadership and foresight. In addition, this issue of the Economic Review includes links to many of the ED-related news stories from the past week. If you have comments, suggestions or topics you’d like to see in the Economic Review, please contact us by clicking the “Comments” link on the bottom of this page. Enjoy! Jeff Edwards President and CEO

FEATURE

Murray City Turns Lead into Lemonade

When the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) ceased its Murray operations in 1949, the smelter site was left with approximately 500,000 tons of heavy metal slag and the soil, ground and surface water were contaminated with high levels of arsenic and lead. “The area was stigmatized by the health risks,” says Murray Mayor Dan Snarr. “No one wanted to develop near the smelter for fear of contamination and the associated legal liabilities.”

And that’s the way the smelter site remained—a blighted, environmentally dangerous area destined to make the EPA’s Superfund list—until twelve years ago. Knowing the Smelter area might become a Superfund site, the city made what is termed an extraordinary move by a local government. Murray proposed to the EPA that the city become the lead agency in the cleanup and the two entities entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in 1996, which formally established the city’s role in the development of cleanup options and identifying potential future land uses at the site.



Now, after years of collaboration, planning and cleanup, the site is actively being developed into a $560 million campus for Intermountain Healthcare’s state-of-the-art Intermountain Medical Center, and Snarr is ecstatic. What’s more, this past November 14 Murray City was awarded the EPA’s prestigious Phoenix Award at a ceremony in Boston, MA, for excellence in the Brownfields redevelopment of the Murray Smelter site. Snarr received the award on behalf of Murray City, the property owners, and the many others that helped make the remediation and redevelopment of the 142-acre Smelter site a reality.

“The significance of the Phoenix Award is that it shows what can happen when a disparate group of individuals and groups come together for a common good,” Snarr says. And the irony of it all, according to Snarr, is that an area which once posed serious health risks will now be home to a world-renowned facility whose sole purpose is to improve health. “Intermountain Healthcare is building the most advanced hospital in the world here,” he says.

In September 2003 Intermountain Healthcare broke ground for its new complex, which will cover over 100 acres of the original smelting and refinery site. The campus will include a nine-story medical office tower and 1.5 million square feet of hospital space. The Intermountain Medical Center will include an ambulatory and outpatient diagnostics hospital, a birthing center, a cancer treatment hospital, a heart and lung hospital, and a tertiary inpatient, critical care level one trauma hospital. It will also be home to one of only two super-large hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers in the world, according to Snarr.

Besides the direct benefits of having a state-of-the-art medical center available, Snarr says the development will provide additional tax revenues, stimulate the local economy through the addition of approximately 4,500 new jobs, and also include the construction of more than $1 billion in physical structures over the next 10 years.

Another 42 acres of the smelter site is being used by the Utah Transit Authority for a TRAX light rail station, and by two local developers interested in commercial opportunities. In addition, Intermountain Healthcare rented a segment of its original share of land to Costco, and GE has made a commitment to locate its software development there.

Snarr credits former Murray Mayor Lynn Pett and his Executive Assistant Jack DeMann for their foresight and hard work to get the smelter site remediation and redevelopment rolling. The city brought together the 17 different land owners and over a six-month period convinced them to cooperate in the cleanup process without litigation. Armed with a Brownfields grant from EPA in January 1997, the city hired a real estate consultant to advise the city and property owners about the land-value implications of various remedial strategies and redevelopment potential.

Brownfields are properties designated by the EPA in which the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Created in 1997, the Phoenix Award honors individuals and groups who are working to solve the critical environmental challenge of transforming blighted and contaminated areas into productive new uses. Criteria for The Phoenix Awards™ focus on the magnitude of the project, innovative techniques, solutions to regulatory issues, and impact upon the community. A panel of environmental professionals and business, academic and government leaders select the winners.

The 2006 Phoenix Award winners for the 10 U.S. EPA regions are:

Region 1: Kendall Square Redevelopment, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Region 2: Fulton Fish Market at Hunts Point, Bronx, New York
Region 3: Bethlehem Commerce Center, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Region 4: Baldwin Park Redevelopment Project, Orlando, Florida
Region 5: Toledo Loves Its Jeeps, Toledo, Ohio
Region 6: Heifer International Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Region 7: Alberici Corporate Headquarters, St. Louis, Missouri
Region 8: Murray Smelter Site, Murray, Utah
Region 9: Lion Creek Crossings, Oakland, California
Region 10: Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes

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