December 5, 2002
William R. Massey, Chair
Northcoast Regional Water Quality Control Board (NCRWQCB)
5550 Skylane Boulevard, Suite A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
Re: Sierra Pacific Industries, Inc. referral to the CA Attorney general for Potential Investigation of Litigation
Dear Chairman of the Board and Boardmembers,
This letter is submitted on behalf of the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) to express our concerns regarding potential limitations on public disclosure and due process in the protection of public health and safety as part of ongoing investigations regarding soil and groundwater contamination with toxic chemicals at Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), Arcata Division Sawmill. We hope you will not act hastily and allow a settlement to take place between SPI and your agency, in conjunction with the Humboldt County District Attorney, before the full extent of the contamination is revealed through the analysis of the CA Dept. of Health Services shellfish sampling efforts and the Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment. We appeal to you to please protect our beneficial uses as well as our health and safety from dangerous chemicals, and not release SPI from liability under state laws.
Dangerous chlorophenolic chemicals including Pentachlorophenol (PCP) and tetrachlorophenol (TCP) that form dioxins and chlorinated furans threaten beneficial uses of Humboldt Bay, and our quality of life here in the Northcoast region. The SPI site in particular is the most threatening. Of all the contaminated PCP sites around Humboldt Bay, the SPI site was determined to be the most toxic (see attached map by CATS and EPIC investigating known historic PCP contaminated sites and the threat to beneficial uses around Humboldt Bay). Your public in Humboldt Bay is demanding that you continue to help protect our communityıs right to know the extent of toxic chemical contamination at the SPI site, as well as how and when the toxic chemicals will be cleaned up.
We support the efforts to date by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to bring SPI into compliance that were initiated by Cleanup and Abatement Order No. R1-2001-0200 (CAO), issued to SPI on October 31, 2001. The Ecological Rights Foundation, CATS, and EPIC have even prosecuted SPI as part of an effort to help your agency clean up the egregious contamination that currently threatens our community, our families, and our future.
We encourage the Board to follow through and protect the beneficial uses of Humboldt Bay from toxic poisoning by requiring SPI to comply with the CAO so that the toxic chemical contamination is sufficiently characterized, described, and removed. The beneficial uses of Humboldt Bay threatened by PCPs, TCPs, and dioxins include the following:
1. Agricultural supply: Irrigation of pasture lands; consumption of dairy products;
2. Industrial service supply: Ballast, coolant, other industrial applications;
3. Navigation: (sedimentation: maintaining depth of channel forces dredging of toxic sediments that elevate turbidity & suspended sediment of toxic adsorbed particles into the water column & food chain;
4. Water contact recreation: wind surfers, boaters, recreational clam digging, etc.;
5. Non-contact water recreation: boaters, fishermen and fisherwomen, researchers, etc.;
6. Commercial and sport fishing: direct exposure through consumption of marine organisms involved in bio-concentrating PCP and toxic dioxins;
7. Aquaculture: Commercially sold oysters filter feed and bio-accumulate;
8. Cold freshwater habitat: Salmonids currently cruising through bay sloughs, estuaries, waiting for the rain to swim upstream; Mad River Slough is an estuary, and a source of fresh water into Humboldt Bay
9. Wildlife habitat: black brant, ducks, other waterfowl, and wildlife (many consumed as food);
10. Rare, threatened, or endangered species: Pelicans, snowy plovers, the tidewater goby, ananadromous salmonids);
Marine habitat: Eelgrass beds, commercial and sport fisheries; anadromous salmonids including king salmon, silver salmon, steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout utilize the Humboldt Bay watershed;
11. Migration of aquatic organisms: including anadromous salmonids in all life stages. The Shorebird Migratory Reserve Network is linked through direct toxic exposure of food sources);
12. Spawning, reproduction, and/or early development: Important for herring, anadromous salmonids, crab, rockfish, the tidewater goby; Humboldt Bay provides nursery area for young silver salmon, king salmon, steelhead, rainbow trout, possibly cutthroat trout, english sole, rockfish, herring, shark, and the dungeoneness crab fishery;
13. Shellfish harvesting: Oysters and clams; operations include, "seed", and "farming";
14. Estuarine habitat: (Only 10% of bay margin is pristine, undiked, bay margin habitat, a significant portion lies within the Mad River Slough that represents ecologically significant habitat). Please consider how each of these beneficial uses needs to be protected. The combined cumulative adverse health effects these toxic chemicals are having on our environment and our health should not be tolerated. The health of our entire community, including humans, animals, wildlife, plants, and all other organisms is at risk. Please ensure that these toxic, nasty chemicals are removed so that they no longer threaten our families, our community, and our future.
Thank you for your time and attention to this important issue facing Humboldt Bay.
Sincerely,
_________________
/s/Christine Ambrose
Coastal Advocate
cc: CA State Environmental Environmental Health
CA California Coastal Commission
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service
National Maine Fisheries Service
