Toxic discovery at Tacoma, Washington home

March 19, 2008 - TACOMA, Wash. - A Tacoma house has been sealed off and the children who lived there are slowly recovering after high levels of lead were found on the property.

John and Heather Jones, who were renting the home, were prepared to move out the minute they were told the property was contaminated. They could never have been prepared what happened next: Their children were diagnosed with lead poisoning.

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Washington State Department of Ecology seaks public comment on cleanup of toxic plume beneath Vancouver neighborhood

January 15, 2008 - The state Department of Ecology has approved the Port of Vancouver's plan for completing cleanup of a toxic plume laying beneath a west Vancouver neighborhood.

Now the department wants to hear what the public thinks.

Ecology and the Port are holding a public meeting tonight to talk about what is expected to be the last step in a process that began in 1998 to remove a potentially dangerous solvent from the groundwater. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the Fruit Valley Elementary School cafeteria, 3410 N.W. Fruit Valley Road.

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Can Seattle's Duwamish river ever be restored?

November 25, 2007 - Little by little, death devours the Duwamish:

A crane drops an industrial-sized electrical transformer, which breaks, oozing its toxic payload into the river.

A railroad tanker car full of highly toxic PCB-contaminated oil and poked full of holes lies half-buried just yards from the river's edge.

At a metal-recycling yard near the Duwamish, a worker pours PCB-laden oil from inside electrical transformers directly onto the ground. This goes on for months -- if not years.

These scenes from the past speak to an ugly truth: We have systematically abused and negligently defiled the river that for millennia nourished Seattle's first people -- and brought the city much of its modern-day wealth.

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Washington homeowners balk at arsenic soil replacement

October 25, 2007 - About 100 property owners in Ruston and Tacoma's north end are refusing to let Asarco LLC remove arsenic- and lead-contaminated soil from their yards, preventing the completion of a Superfund cleanup project begun 14 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

"Obviously, it is unfortunate that we have a large number of people who are refusing sampling or refusing cleanup," said Kevin Rochlin, an Environmental Protection Agency project manager. "I cannot guarantee in the future peoples' yards will be cleaned up."

EPA officials have tried to persuade property owners for several years to participate in the cleanup program. It's unclear why they won't, Rochlin said.

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Health risks at creosote cleanup site in Washington State are mulled

August 18, 2007 - What hazards remain for the public at the still-polluted Superfund site?

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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Washington State Replacing Contaminated Soil at Schools

July 25, 2007 - Don’t let children dig in the dirt.

That’s been the public health mantra for years in areas where windblown arsenic and lead from the former Asarco copper smelter has contaminated soil.

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A Washington Family Finds a Hazardous Waste Site in the Backyard of Their New Home

July 9, 2007 - n the middle of the flooding and the mold, years of personal and industrial waste began percolating up from the middle of the Nealey's backyard.

Julie showed us through the thick brush pointing out trash, oil drums and rusted car bodies from an old auto shop.

"The only way it could get worse is if they dug into the property and found a burial site," she said.

"We did all the things you're suppose to do, we had home inspections, our mortgage company did flood determinations, we had a title company look at stuff, no one found anything," Julie said.

The Nealeys sued their home inspector, only to find out their contract allowed them to sue only for what they paid their inspector -- less than $200. The Nealeys also sued the former owners and their real estate company, Wilson Realty.

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Army Agrees to Testing at Fort Lewis

This is good news, but I still wonder why it took five years for them to agree to test.

Here's the article:

April 12, 2007 - FORT LEWIS, Wash. — In a quick turnabout following a published report, the Army has had a change of heart and now plans to test the air in homes at Fort Lewis.
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Despite years of EPA urging military won't test for dangerous vapors in Fort Lewis housing

If true, this story is completely outragious. If there is any chance at all (which there clearly is) that our soldiers and their families are being exposed to toxic vapors, then why wouldn't they test the air quality? With all the money being spent on other things, you would think protecting these families who are already sacrificing so much would be a priority.

Here's the article:

April 9, 2007
Plumes of contaminated underground water could be releasing dangerous vapors into family homes at Fort Lewis. But despite years of urging from the Environmental Protection Agency, the military has not tested the housing for toxic gas, nor has it warned the hundreds of soldiers, spouses and children who have occupied the dwellings that they could be at risk.

For at least five years, military officials have known of the possible seepage of trichloroethylene vapors from groundwater near and under the homes in the fort's Madigan Army Medical Center housing area, according to interviews and government documents obtained by the Seattle P-I. More . . .