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Page Ranch Timeline

Page Ranch Timeline

1941- John Timothy Page sells half of his land to the Arizona Board of Regents for $10 and later sells the other half for another $10. That land becomes the Page Ranch International Center for Arid Lands Agriculture and dumping begins in the late 1940s.

1962 - Regular dumping of radioactive waste by the UA begins at Page Ranch. The university has stated that the site was used for the dumping of radioactive waste had begun on a limited basis even earlier. However, 280 million tons had already been dumped by 1962.

1978 - For a brief period of time chemical waste is evaporated in the pits, rather than the normal method of disposal, burning it. For several years following this bottles and drums were stacked in the pits with no lining. Soil was the only barrier.

1983 - To ensure that chemical waste would not penetrate the soil and contaminate the ground water in case a bottle or drum broke, the UA began to lab pack the chemical waste. Residents of Oracle voice opposition to the dumping beginning in the early 1980s and had continued through today.

1984 - The same process of labpacking began for radioactive waste before putting them in lined cells. Oracle citizens form an ad hoc committee to demand that the UA stop dumping at the site.

1986 - All dumping ceases and Page Ranch is closed.

January 2000 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems that the waste buried at Page Ranch does not endanger the residents of Oracle, whose main water supply is only three miles away.

May 2000 - Samplings from test wells at Page Ranch show that there is not plutonium contamination.

Sources: Questions Concerning the University of Arizona Hazardous Waste Landfill at Page Ranch, prepared by the UA in 1984. Additional information: EPA officials and Steve Holland, UA director of Risk Management.