Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Ruston, WA

Ruston is a tiny city in Pierce County, Washington — barely a quarter of a square mile of land — bordered by Commencement Bay on one side and surrounded on all other sides by the city of Tacoma.

Ruston began as a company town: in 1890 industrialist William R. Rust took over a smelter that had opened two years earlier, establishing the Tacoma Smelting & Refining Company and its "Smelter District" housing.

Residents voted to incorporate in 1906 and named the new town Ruston in William Rust's honor; it was officially incorporated on November 10, 1906.

ASARCO acquired the smelter in 1905 and converted it to copper smelting, processing ores shipped in from across the Pacific Northwest and overseas.

The smelter's brick smokestack, built in 1917, stood 571 feet tall — the tallest in the world at the time — before earthquake damage in 1937 led to it being shortened to 562 feet.

The smelter closed in 1985 amid falling copper prices and new arsenic-pollution regulations, costing about 700 jobs, and its landmark smokestack was demolished on January 17, 1993, during the Superfund cleanup.

The EPA Superfund cleanup extended across most of the town, removing arsenic- and lead-contaminated soil from yards and properties, and was largely complete by 2006.

The 97-acre former smelter site has been redeveloped since 2013 as Point Ruston, a waterfront urban village with homes, shops, and park space connected by a path to Point Defiance Park.

The 2020 census counted 1,055 residents in Ruston — up about 41% from 749 in 2010 as the cleaned-up waterfront drew new homebuyers.

In the 2010 census Ruston had 336 households with an average household size of 2.23 people.