Little Squalicum Park Cleanup

Crews work on park restoration

Cleanup crews at Little Squalicum Park have halted their work of removing hazardous waste contaminants from the park and are well behind the estimated completion date, establishing winter shut down as of Monday, Nov. 15.

The crews were given 30 days to complete the cleanup in August, but have found additional, unanticipated contaminants in the park, pushing the completion until next summer.  The crews will begin work again summer 2011, but in the meantime trails will be opened in the northwest corner of the park.

Gina Gobo Austin, parks and recreation department project leader for Little Squalicum, said during the cleanup, they have found more contamination.

“It’s a lot more work than we anticipated,” Austin said. “It’s the same contamination, but more volume than originally thought.”

Austin said some of the contamination may have to remain in the park, buried under a soil barrier.

“Oeser has taken all of the contamination so far into their repository, but when that is full, it will have to be consolidated onsite,” Austin said.

The Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the project as one of Washington State and Whatcom County’s only Superfund site and is labeled by the EPA as a national priority site.

A Superfund site according to the EPA website, is a “federal government program to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.”

The clean up project has been more invasive to the park and removed more of the vegetation than what original plans demonstrated, said Councilmember Jack Weiss.

“The whole area looks like its been raped,” Weiss said.

The contamination at the park was discovered in 1997 and was designated a Superfund site by the EPA due to severe contamination. The main contaminant found is a chemical called pentachlorophenol or penta.  Penta is used at Oeser to treat utility poles and is a known human carcinogen, which is an agent directly involved in causing cancer.

Oeser has been in business of treating utility poles with penta and creosote, which is no longer used, since the 1920s. Chris Secrist, manager at Oeser, said Oeser has played an important role in the community.  He said they have helped support the Washington state economy over the years by supplying work in their industry throughout the state.  

“It starts with the land owner, public or private, and they reap benefits.  Then the contractors, foresters, truckers, Oeser employees and linesmen use the product.” Secrist said.

Secrist said Oeser employs 20 workers with salaries they can raise a family on and buy their own homes.

Weighing the environmental impact with the economic impact, Secrist said it is regrettable, but they have improved their operations.

 “Society didn’t have an appreciation (for the environment).  In the early days there were no controls, in hindsight it was not the proper way,” Secrist said. 

He said current operations have a negligible impact.

 “We believe Oeser is the most environmentally sound utility treament facility in the nation,” Secrist said.

Weiss has personal experience with the effects of penta and knows first hand of the dangers.

After an accident in 1994, when a worker accidentally put penta into a low temperature diesel flame, releasing toxic black smoke into the air.  According to the World Health Organization, one gram of penta can cause immediate liver damage.

Weiss said people in the neighborhood, including his wife, developed immediate respiratory problems.

“People immediately got sick. All the people who experienced the fire, developed health problems,” said Weiss.  “It’s not something that instantly kills, it takes time to develop into something serious.”

In 2003, Oeser was found to have violated EPA regulations regarding proper disposal of hazardous materials and not insuring a proper contingency plan.  The company was not properly discarding of waste from their drip pads, which collect drippage of chemicals applied to utility poles.

“It was largely a paperwork issue,” Secrist said.  “Even though it was cleaned up, it became classified as hazardous waste and was not disposed of as hazardous waste.  Basically a technicality.”

 Oeser was also ordered to build a financial assurance plan in order to fund accident clean up.  Oeser was ordered by the EPA to assure $36,000 in three years, but failed to do so.  The penalty for not complying with the order resulted in a $7,880 fine.

The first clean up began in 1997, but was stopped in 1998 after the EPA determined the clean up to be sufficient.

The Oeser Cedar Cleanup Coalition, a now dissolved community organization advocating for continuing the clean up at Little Squalicum, hired a consultant to conduct further studies on park contamination.

The coalition found contamination to be at unacceptable levels and reported their findings to the EPA.  In 2003, the EPA recanted their initial statement that the park was no longer sufficiently contaminated and began a process to give the city of Bellingham money for additional cleanup.

The Coalition traced the chemical footprint back to Oeser and wanted the company to take financial responsibility for the clean up.

“The bottom line was if report proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the contamination was caused by Oeser, the city would have it done on Oeser’s dime,” Weiss said.

Although Oeser was determined to be the source of the contamination, Weiss said he doubts the company has paid for any of the clean up.  He said insurance policies taken out by Oeser have covered the costs.

“The insurance policies covered the contamination, which put the insurance companies on the hook and the company (Oeser) skated,” Weiss said. “You want to talk about corporate welfare, there’s a perfect example.”

Weiss said the initial response by the EPA was inadequate, but are now on the right track. 

“The EPA is doing what it needs to do,” Weiss said. “The EPA is doing a much better job.”