Dry Creek Coalition

DCC Board Meeting Minutes 11 June 2008

DCC Board Minutes for 11 June 2008 are attached.

DCCMin11Jun08.pdf

DCC Board Minutes for May 08

Minutes of the DCC Board Meeting of 14 May 08 attached.

DCCMinMay08.pdf

Email To DOE Jeff Stewart

An Email sent by Jim Jewell to DOE regarding the toxic materials in the City of Port Angeles Dump was shunted to another section of DOE.
This Email readdresses the original Email and Harley Oien focuses action back to DOE requesting that the State of Washington address
the problem of toxic materials at the City of Port Angeles more directly or the matter will soon migrate to the Federal Court system under
a Clean Water Act lawsuit.

JeffStewartDOEH.pdf

DCC Requests DOE Address Toxic Materials in Port Angeles Dump

The following is an email to DOE and their response in passing that email off to another section of the bureauacracy.

DCCmsgDOEToxicMatls.pdf

Toxic Materials Leaching From Port Angeles Dump Exceed Acute Salt Water Levels by State Standards

Dry Creek Coalition collected drainage from Strait at very low tide 3 June 2008.
Chemical analysis by certified laboratory reveals extreme concentrations of Copper, Lead and Zinc:  all toxic to marine life.  Other metals:  Antimony, Chromium, and Mercury are very elevated when compared to our control sample from Freshwater Bay, FB-3.
Sample team noted total lack of marine life in the retaing wall area and the area of the mouth of Dry Creek at the Port Angeles Dump.
Control sample from Freshwater Bay, FB-3, served as a control or standard for comparison with toxic metal concentrations leaching from the Port Angeles Dump.

At a very low tide on 3 June 2008, three members of the Dry Creek Coalition took a sample of running water approximately 150 yards offshore of the PA Dump retaining wall.  This running water was coming from the retaining wall at the dump and running around huge masses of fused garbage materials lying offshore.  That sample is DW-1, see attachment below.  Analysis of DW-1 shows massive amounts of very toxic inorganic metals by DOE saltwater standards. Sample DC-2 was taken from water running from the mouth of Dry Creek at a location approximately 100 yards offshore and approximately 200 yards West of the retaining wall.

TwissPADumpAnalysis.pdf

The following is a table of standards for toxic metals in salt water cited by Washington State DOE

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=173-201A-240

Dry Creek Coalition presented a package of Port Angeles Dump information generated over the past four (4) years and a five minute presentation to the seven councilpersons on 8 May 2008, in Council Chambers.  We emphasized that marine life is all but missing offshore the dump and that we would conduct chemical tests at the next low tide for INORGANIC METALS.  Our testimony is the next attachment.

CityCouncilMay08.pdf

The Dry Creek Coalition did NOT test for organic leachate coming from the dump.  This is an open issue.
The Coalition has asserted for several years that the design of test wells for sampling any dump leachate would and could not show any materials being leached from the unlined garbage.  The design of the new retaining wall sample wells preserves that inability to make true sampling for toxic leachates. 

We feel that continued inaction by DOE and the City of Port Angeles in removing the garbage in the unlined dump (1,000,000 cu yds) perpetuates contamination and poisoning of the entire Strait and Puget Sound water system.  We are exploring resolution in Federal District Court under the Federal Clean Water Act at this time.