FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 14, 2002 02-034
OLYMPIA - People either love them or hate them, but one citizen initiative adopted more than 12 years ago has generated good results for the state of Washington - with nearly 5,000 toxic sites being cleaned up across the state of Washington.
The Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), adopted in November 1989 as Initiative 97-B, imposed limits for toxic substances in soil, air and water. It also established a tax on hazardous substances, such as petroleum products, to help pay for cleanups.
Since then, 9,067 potentially-contaminated sites have been identified throughout the state and 4,775 (about 53 percent) of them have been cleaned up or deemed to require no further action. This includes four sites where cleanup was completed in the last six months, and 34 sites that the Department of Ecology has recently ranked and added to the waiting list for cleanup.
Jim Pendowski of the Department of Ecology, which is responsible for administering MTCA, said the cleanup program has grown and improved significantly over the years.
"We started with 678 suspect sites in 1990 and have added several hundred a year since then," he said. "The good news is that the list is growing at a slower rate than the early years, so we hope we're finally getting ahead of the problem."
Pendowski also finds it encouraging that the cleanup program is finally addressing some lower-priority cleanups. "After tackling the worst sites first, we're finally getting to some of the 2's and 3's, and eventually will get to the 4's and 5's," he said, referring to the five-point ranking system that helps determine which contaminated sites will get cleaned up first.
The scores do not reflect the severity of the contamination, but are based on where the site is and the potential paths through which humans and sensitive environments could be exposed to the hazardous substances. Thus, a site with a number one ranking may have less contamination or less-hazardous contaminants than lower-ranked sites, but the risk of exposure is higher and cleanup needs to happen quicker.
Of the 34 sites being added to the cleanup list, six are ranked number one, seven are ranked number two, 11 are ranked number 3, five are ranked number four, and five are ranked number five. They are located in 10 counties:
Benton, King, Kitsap, Mason, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, Whatcom and Whitman.
An additional site, in Okanogan County, was re-ranked from a 2 to a 1.
The four sites being removed from the cleanup list are in Benton, Pierce and Snohomish counties.
More information about all of the sites, including their locations, is available at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/mtca_gen/hs020314_update.html.
For contamination found on private property, Ecology must attempt to identify the responsible parties and require them to pay for the cleanups.
Although liable parties are located for most sites, the state cleanup account covers the costs for "orphan" sites where the responsible party cannot be found or is unable to pay.
The cleanup account also provides matching money for cleanups on sites owned by local governments. As of November 2001, they had received more than $141 million from the cleanup account since 1990 and had contributed a similar amount from their own budgets.
Increasingly, companies that have purchased contaminated land from a prior owner are stepping forward to voluntarily clean up the property so they can redevelop it for other economic uses. Through Ecology's voluntary cleanup program, site owners may conduct cleanups on their own schedule with minimal oversight. The agency's only role is to approve the cleanups when they are completed.
Despite the progress, there still are substantial cleanups facing the state, including marine and freshwater sediments, mining wastes, and pollution from former smelters.
"Thanks to our voters, Washington has probably the most comprehensive and successful toxic-cleanup program in the country," said Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons. "We have an ongoing, steady funding source that has enabled us to pioneer new cleanup technologies and support local communities through some long-term, difficult cleanup projects."
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