Plans to dump PCB-tainted soil in Elliott Bay raise concerns
Environmentalists fear effect of toxic mud on animals and people
Port of Seattle Chief Executive Tay Yoshitani says he wants to run the "cleanest, greenest and most energy-efficient port in the United States."
But some environmentalists are calling the meaning of his words into question because of a port project that has received permission to dump PCBs in Elliott Bay.
PCBs are polychlorinated biphenyls, toxic chemicals used as fire retardants that were banned in the 1970s. They are so toxic and so long-lived that they are usually measured in parts per billion -- yet the port proposes to dump 9 pounds of them into the bay for an upcoming dredging project. The mud to be dumped would come from an area being studied for cleanup as part of the Harbor Island Superfund site.
The dredging project -- which would dispose of 66,000 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated mud in the winter of 2008-09 -- has passed muster with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state Ecology Department, the state Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
But a coalition of environmentalists says the tests used by those agencies are inadequate and do not protect the health of humans and orcas, which eat salmon that over time have been exposed to Puget Sound's polluted waters. Scientists say PCBs likely are making it tough for orcas to reproduce and possibly to find food.
Environmentalists would like the port to send the most contaminated part of the dredged materials -- roughly one-third of it, containing about 7 pounds of PCBs -- to a landfill rather than to the waters of Elliott Bay as planned.
Continue reading this article from the Seattle P-I:
Plans to dump PCB-tainted soil in Elliott Bay raise concerns
