Why cleaning up toxic waste sites is important – Part 1
Right now, in Washington State – there are over 12,500 known or suspected properties that are contaminated with toxic chemicals. These chemicals are in the groundwater, soil, and/or sediment. Typical contaminants include petroleum, metals, solvents, and highly toxic chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins and furans. Some toxic sites are contaminating our air. Cleanup at many of these sites is relatively simple, such as at a gas station with leaking underground storage tanks. Others are very complex, such as a shuttered industrial site that left behind a cocktail of long-lived highly toxic chemicals on the ground that flowed into the groundwater or sediments. Many toxic sites are the legacy from past heavy industry including mining, milling, boat building and manufacturing. Much of this toxic pollution was left in our midst years ago, before we knew the impact and before laws were passed that prohibited dumping chemicals on our land, water, or in unlined landfills.
Washington’s environmental cleanup law is the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA). It works to protect our health by funding and directing the investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites. A hallmark of MTCA is a prescribed cleanup process during which cleanup alternatives are developed and evaluated, as well as several times where people have opportunities to provide comments and learn about the proposed cleanup alternatives. About 6,600 cleanups of hazardous sites have been cleaned up under the MTCA process so far.
How MTCA got started
In 1980, a Federal “Superfund” law was passed to clean up hazardous waste sites. The purpose of this law, known as The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) was to clean up hazardous-waste sites. CERCLA gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to seek out those parties responsible for contamination and assure their cooperation in the cleanup. It also required states to identify contaminated sites.
MTCA is sometimes known as Washington State’s cleanup law. In Washington, MTCA originated from citizens’ Initiative 97 and became law in 1989. Its key provisions are that cleanups should be as permanent as possible, the polluter pays the costs, and that public participation is essential. MTCA also includes a tax on hazardous substances including petroleum, pesticides, and other chemicals to pay for these processes.
The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) receives MTCA funds to implement and enforce MTCA. Ecology’s team of site managers, toxicologists, engineers, and hydrogeologists manage most of the cleanups in Washington. Ecology also manages several grant programs that help local governments clean up contaminated sites, as well as grant programs that provide funds to non-governmental organizations to promote public participation and awareness of contaminated sites and pollution problems.
What this means for Grays Harbor County and the Chehalis Watershed
Within the city limits of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, there are over 150 MTCA cleanup sites, most of which have not been cleaned up, nor have cleanup processes started. Most of these sites were listed because of leaking underground storage tanks or leaking heating oil tanks. In some cases, Ecology allows the least complicated sites to be cleaned up under a voluntary cleanup process (VCP). But any sites with complex contamination are cleaned up under MTCA. The most contaminated sites are rated for environmental and human health risk, with a rating from 1 to 5, with 1 having the most human and environmental risk. There are about 10 sites in the Grays Harbor area with a rating of 1, and few of these sites have entered into the cleanup process.
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| photo: Lee First |
Here in the Harbor, we live on an estuary. Many of us depend on the water for jobs, food, and commerce. Many of us recreate here and live here because of the abundant fish, shellfish and water resources. Contaminated sites affect our health, the environment, and limit economic growth in many industrial areas. Because of our position in the landscape, we receive all the water from the 123-mile long Chehalis River watershed, as well as other rivers. The estuary is where all the water ends up – and it receives discharges from cleanup sites, wastewater treatment plant outfalls, stormwater discharge pipes, sheet runoff, and agricultural runoff. In order to protect our way of life, it behooves us all to learn about water quality, contribute to cleanup site processes, and above all – adopt behaviors that help keep our water clean.
photo via https://www.historicalseaport.org/
Success is possible. One important site on the Harbor is undergoing the MTCA process. At the Weyerhaeuser Sawmill Aberdeen/Seaport Landing Site, past sawmill operations and forest product industry practices contaminated soil, sediment and groundwater. A public meeting was recently held, and the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority will use past investigations and close data gaps to conduct additional studies and develop a cleanup action plan. These cleanups are thorough and take many years to complete.
Part 2 of this article will focus on several important cleanup sites in Grays Harbor that have received a rank of 1.
This op-ed was funded by a Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) Public Participation Grant, but was not necessarily endorsed by Ecology.
Lee First is the Twin Harbors Waterkeeper, which is a member of the International Waterkeeper Alliance. Waterkeepers around the world work for fishable, drinkable, swimmable water.
