Buying a house is, at best, a scary proposition. Not only is it the biggest financial decision of most consumers' lives, but it involves navigating arcane information ranging from structural engineering to title law.
   Increasingly in Utah and across the nation, environmental issues are entering the decision mix. Subdivisions are springing up on property located near or on mines, smelters or other former industrial properties.
   A case in point is the 4,200-acre Daybreak development located on the western reaches of West Jordan. Daybreak is a so-called planned, "walkable" community being developed by Kennecott Land, a spin-off of the copper giant that left that nearby 2.5 mile-wide hole in the side of the Oquirrh Mountains.
   Daybreak's charming architecture and amenities have dazzled valley home buyers who have purchased more than 900 homes since 2004. When Kennecott Land announced the project in 2004, the plan was to build 13,667 single-family and multi-family units on 4,126 acres over 10 to 15 years. Home prices were to range from $120,000 to more than $500,000, with most in the $200,000 range.
   Apparently, sales are unhindered by its standard - and sobering - disclaimer form. The eight-page document requires buyers to sign that they understand 16 issues, ranging from aircraft overflights to no guarantees of view to a grim history of mining contamination.
   "These disclosures need to be provided to the home buyer so that we can be sure the home buyer is aware of all the issues before the purchase is made," says Bruce Snyder, Daybreak's vice president of residential and commercial development.
   Third on the list is a disclosure of "environmental issues" that notes that part of Daybreak lies in the corner of what used to be mining evaporation ponds. The enclosures once held runoff water contaminated with heavy metals. (Interestingly, one of the major draws of Daybreak is the proposed Oquirrh Lake, an 85-acre string of artificial ponds bordered by parks that will be completed by 2010.)
   Following an agreement with the state in 1994, Kennecott Utah Copper has been cleaning up the area, including trucking off the old pond sediment and replacing it with topsoil. Officials estimate Kennecott and local governments have spent $100 million on the project.
   The work surpassed the Environmental Protection Agency's goals, bringing the site to "within or only slightly above" levels that typically naturally occur in the area, according to the Daybreak disclosure. A "plume" of mining-contaminated groundwater deep under South Jordan will require another 40 to 100 years to mitigate.
   Daybreak buyers are asked to sign and understand that, "While such sulfate, lead, arsenic and other metals in the groundwater may render the underground water undrinkable, they do not pose a health or safety concern or threat to individuals who may live, work or recreate in Daybreak."
   Daybreak's drinking water comes from the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District.
   "The important thing to get across," says Snyder, "is people who live in Daybreak are not drinking contaminated water."
   Still some might find off-putting the disclosure's warning that contaminants in the soil "could cause damage to metal objects and/or certain types of concrete. . . . Further, the sulfates may make it difficult for certain types of plants to grow in the affected soils."
   Daybreak officials say they know of no buyer turned off by the disclosure.
   "I think buyers appreciate the fact that we put the cards on the table," says Ty McCutcheon, Daybreak's director of residential development. "It [the disclosure] is a value added, rather than a detriment."
    Real estate attorney Jay Bell agrees that in principle the disclosures are a good thing for home buyers, and an even better thing for Kennecott Land because buyers can never claim they were unaware of potential problems.
   "Disclosure should be a good thing, not a bad thing as long as you are not waiving a right," Bell says.
   On the other hand, such disclosures certainly do not enhance the value of the property, he says. "They are admitting the property has reduced value to it."
   "It should shake you a bit as a buyer. You should ask yourself, 'This is an important issue or they wouldn't be asking me to sign it,' " Bell says. "But what you are dealing with is a normal buyer who doesn't have a lot of negotiating power or knowledge."
    Armed with such information, commercial and industrial buyers would negotiate a better deal, he says. But for the past two years the Salt Lake Valley has been a sellers' home market, giving someone buying a home little bargaining leverage.
   Tyler Bastian bought one of the tasteful two-story, three-bedroom houses in Daybreak and admits, "The disclosure made me a little nervous when I saw it."
   Bastian was vaguely aware of Daybreak's environmental issues from news reports. He asked a friend who works for an environmental group about it and the friend reassured him that the water and soil issues at Daybreak were "probably not a problem."
   "I can't imagine them [Kennecott Land] putting this much money into it if there was a serious problem," Bastian says. "It's such a huge, huge corporation, I can't imagine them risking being taken down over a small community."
    As for the 50-square-mile contaminated plume under South Jordan, a step forward was taken with the opening this month of a reverse osmosis filtering plant, the first of two.
    The first plant will begin pumping water for the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District next month, says general manager David Ovard.
   Because the source of the contamination has been sealed off, the aquifer should right itself as fresh water seeps down to it and the contaminated water is pumped out and filtered, he says. But that could take a century.