New strategy for Hylebos cleanup
ENVIRONMENT: Under proposal, waterway would be scoured, with contaminants dumped in a landfill
March 21, 01
Susan Gordon; The News Tribune
Four companies with ties to the polluted Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma's Tideflats propose to scour out the head of the waterway and deposit tons of the contaminated gunk in an Eastern Washington landfill.
Leaders of the Partnership for a Clean Waterway say their strategy could pick up the pace of the Hylebos cleanup, for which planning has dragged on for years.
"We could have it done by the end of 2003," said Paul Fuglevand, a Kirkland engineer and environmental consultant to the partnership.
"That's good news for the waterway," said Bud Preston, environmental projects manager for Kaiser Aluminum, one of four partnership members. Others are Asarco, ATOFINA Chemicals and General Metals of Tacoma.
The partners are still working on how much the project would cost and how the cost would shared, said Mat Cusma, environmental administrator for General Metals.
It's up to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate the partnership's offer and decide whether to accept it.
"There's not much we can say at this point. Nobody's seen the details." said Allison Hiltner, the EPA's remedial project manager for Commencement Bay.
The Hylebos is part of the Commencement Bay Superfund site. The bay was among the first sites in the nation identified for cleanup in 1983 under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, the federal law known as Superfund. It requires polluters to pay for toxic cleanups.
Last year, EPA approved a cleanup plan for Commencement Bay that ruled out the controversial underwater burial of a huge mound of waste. Environmentalists and nearby residents objected to the agency's initial proposal to dump contaminated sediments in the bay. The site was outside the mouth of the Hylebos Waterway, which is the longest and most polluted channel in the Tideflats.
The EPA's final bay cleanup plan listed several alternatives for disposal of contaminants, including burial on land. That was recommended by Citizens for a Healthy Bay, a 900-member environmental group opposed the underwater dump site.
Monday, Leslie Ann Rose, Citizens for a Healthy Bay policy analyst, reacted cautiously to news of the partnership's proposal. "I don't have a lot of specifics to comment on," she said.
The partnership submitted its proposal Friday, which was the EPA deadline for offers to clean the Hylebos.
The partnership's offer covers 428,000 cubic yards of sediment. That's nearly half the 940,000 cubic yards of material that must be cleaned up, according to EPA's Hiltner.
If EPA approves, the partnership would pack the spoils in railroad cars and haul them to the Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Klickitat County. The dredging would take about seven months, Fuglevand said. The sediment carried to the landfill would fill about 5,000 rail cars, which probably would be dispatched at a rate of about 30 per day, he said.
Bill Sullivan, environmental director for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, said some of the sediment may be too hazardous to stick in an ordinary garbage dump like Roosevelt. In some spots along the Hylebos, contamination exceeds the government's threshold for ordinary land burial, he said.
Fuglevand disputed that. The contaminants submerged near the head of the Hylebos Waterway may threaten aquatic life, but they aren't likely pose problems on land, he said. "The chemical concentrations are so low to start with, there should be no (hazardous) releases at all," he said.
Besides sending sediment to the landfill, the partnership also proposes to spread a smaller amount of the dredged material over 15 or 20 acres of land adjacent to the Kaiser plant, Preston said.
"I think it will mesh very well with what's been proposed for the rest of the waterway," Preston said.
The partnership's proposal marks the latest development in a longtime effort to clean the Hylebos.
Previously, the Port of Tacoma and Occidental Chemical announced an agreement to scoop up hazardous goop near the mouth of the Hylebos and bury it in the port's Blair Slip 1. The slip also is on the EPA's list of preferred disposal options.
The port proposes to permanently dike and cap the wastes to prevent leaks. Filling the slip also will allow the port to update and expand its shipping facilities.
In all, the EPA has identified 69 "potentially responsible parties" that may be liable for Hylebos cleanup costs, Hiltner said. Among them are the four partnership members, as well as Occidental Chemical and the Port of Tacoma.
It's unclear whether the combination of cleanup proposals submitted to the agency so far will adequately cover the need.
Together, the port and Occidental have agreed to clean up 300,000 cubic yards, said Dick Gilmur, the port's environmental affairs director.
The port and Occidental have focused their attention on pollution near the mouth of the waterway. The partnership is aimed at the head.
"It sounds like there's still an area in the middle that needs to be dealt with," Gilmur said.