The years of rampant industrial activity on and around Harbor Island have taken a toll on the Duwamish that lingers, like a threatening black cloud.
In the early 1970s a local metro newspaper did an exhaustive survey of the Polychlorinated Biphenyls, known to the world as PCBs, and the range of other things left over from World War II and later when the primary job was to get things manufactured and no thought was given to what was flowing into the river.
For 35 years since, there has been a lot of hand wringing, a plethora of studies and a lot of money spent, but still the basic problem is there (see Steve Shay's report on Page One).
Shawn Blocker is federal Envionmental Protection Administration's project coordinator for Boeing Plant 2, for the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. He told Shay, "We're going to clean the place up," and he paints a more menacing picture of Boeing's contribution of muck in the river. He said that removing Plant 2's buildings is not necessarily a viable solution. "Sometimes it is better to leave a building in place as sediments stay put. Yes, removing a building makes it easier to access the soil underneath, but it may move the toxic sediments into ground water.
"Plant 2 has the most diverse group of pollutants on the river, not just PCB's, but an additional 40 contaminants in its soil, including semi-volatile organic compounds, volatile organic compounds and petroleum contaminants. Most industries along the river have contributed just one. These chemicals are Boeing's relics of the past, and are now haunting them."
Still, Blocker credits Boeing for being a responsible player in the cleanup effort.
"I have the advantage of having a responsible party with financial resources to clean things up," he said of Boeing. "Money has not been an issue with any contention between the EPA and Boeing. They're not Ma and Pa Kettle."
It is a vexing and expensive problem that hangs over the community. We are not sure it will ever be totally cleaned up because the science is not really up to the job yet.
The job must be done to make certain it is not permitted to get worse by digging around and stirring up the pollution. Sometimes it is better to let things stay as they are until science and dollars are there to really clean up the problems.
- Jack Mayne
