Saddle Rock Remediation Project Likely Facing Significant Delay

Progress on the City of Wenatchee's Saddle Rock Remediation Project will likely have to be delayed another year after Mayor Frank Kuntz gave an update on the effort to remove waste rock piles from the recreation spot during the last City Council meeting. The city is partnering with the Department of Ecology on the project.

One of the trails that goes up the hill is partly on private property, creating an issue that will make it unlikely work on Phase 2 of the project can begin in the fall. Phase 2 of the two-phase project will focus on the upper portions of the hill, while Phase 1 focused on the hill's lower portions.

About 100 years of gold prospecting, ending in 1989, resulted in the creation of several waste rock piles. The Department of Ecology tested the piles in 2011 and found high concentrations of certain metals, including arsenic, mercury, and selenium.