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Department of Ecology News Release - November 9, 2007
07-334
OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) and Alcoa today announced an accelerated schedule to complete the cleanup of Alcoa’s former manufacturing site on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.
Ecology director Jay Manning and Mark Stiffler, Alcoa’s director of asset management, said the state agency and the company are committed to cleaning up polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the riverbed adjacent to Alcoa’s site as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, every effort will also be made to protect public health and to address remaining sources of PCBs at the Alcoa property, they said. PCBs can cause a variety of health effects, and are a suspected carcinogen.
Under a timeline finalized this week, Alcoa will remove contaminated sediments adjacent to the company’s property during the next possible fish window – November 2008. The fish window is the time of year when dredging and other in-water work can be done without harming fish and other aquatic life and was developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to regulate dredging operations.
The company also announced plans to remove contaminated freshwater clams along the shoreline adjacent to Alcoa’s property this coming winter as river stage, tides and river conditions allow. This action is intended to eliminate potential human exposure to PCBs at this site. Concerns exist in the community that people may try to harvest and eat tainted clams.
Manning said, "Alcoa has done a lot of good work to clean up the site since 1986, but the time has come to pick up the pace and finish the job. Ecology will do everything in our power to remove roadblocks and make sure the site cleanup fully protects people and the environment."
He added, "We will also do a better job of keeping the public routinely informed and up-to-date on our progress in completing the work."
Stiffler said, "Alcoa remains committed to fully cleaning up the site and addressing the issues that have been identified. We have a long and successful track record of proactively working with the Department of Ecology and other agencies to put our former manufacturing facilities back into productive use to create jobs and expand the tax base. Alcoa has already completed approximately $42 million in the remediation of the major upland PCB sources at the Vancouver site which was required to prevent recontamination of the Columbia and agrees that, based on the clam data released this year, acceleration of the river clean up is the most prudent course of action to protect human health and the environment."
Study results released in early 2007 revealed high levels of PCBs in the tissue of freshwater clams taken from sites all along the river.
In August, Ecology and Alcoa placed signs in multiple languages at public access areas and along the company’s site warning against digging and eating clams. Clark County Health Department issued a similar warning in April 2007. It is illegal to dig freshwater clams in Washington.
By the end of November, Ecology and Alcoa are preparing to announce the cleanup standard that will be used when dredging contaminated sediments from the river.
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More information:
Focus on Alcoa
Vancouver Cleanup
Alcoa
Vancouver Accelerated Cleanup Schedule
Clark County Health Department shellfish advisory:
http://www.clark.wa.gov/news/news-release.asp?pkNewsSeq=1179
Media Contact: Dave Workman, Ecology communications, 360-407-7004
Kim Schmanke, Ecology communications 360-407-6239
Gary Biviano, Alcoa public affairs, 865-386-4087
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
