Life was simpler before people wised up to the dangers of hazardous waste.
Charles Schmid recalls swimming in the Atlantic Ocean and coming home with tar on his feet. Jerry Elfendahl spoke of the the Japanese drug Seirogan, which touts creosote as its main ingredient to fight diarrhea.
While the small audience at the EPA’s five-year review of the Wyckoff Super-fund site chuckled at the expense of a more naive age, Richard Kauffman, senior regional representative for the Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry brought the issue home:
“With so many variables that affect public health, it’s very difficult to link specific contaminants to ailments.”
While the EPA is pushing for a containment plan on the controversial site at Bill Point, and the city, Suquamish Tribe and the state Department of Ecology are pushing for a more costly thermal treatment of underground creosote waste, community concerns about health hazards have not been addressed since the ATSDR’s last report on the site back in 1994.
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