The Seattle Times reported yesterday that the supposed minor leak at the Port Townsend Paper mill was far worse than originally reported. A mill worker became a whistle blower with photos to prove it. He was fired for his efforts. The Times story should shock the complacent in this town.
This blog has reported for over a dozen years of the lack of real oversight by the Washington Department of Ecology, which seems to take an approach that it is in coordination with the mill. Some years ago, an effort promoted by local concerned citizens to do random air sampling to determine whether we were being exposed to toxic chemicals from the smell we all smell at times, found the WDOE sharing that they were going to monitor the mill air during a certain week, and surprise! the mill shut down for maintenance that week. Since the Longview mill tank rupture there has been virtual silence on whether the same tank(s) here may be at risk. A recent sighting of a large crane near one of the tanks led some to wonder if work was being done on it. All this is enough to convince many of us there is little use in expecting the DOE to take our side in an issue. And then there is the Port Townsend Leader, which seems unlikely to report anything seriously criticizing one of the largest employers in the area and the advertising revenue it may represent. The story mentions that U.S. Representative Emily Randall is “looking into it”, and of course that makes us wonder how much money the company may have contributed to her reelection campaign. It’s all of a piece. We who live here are left feeling like victims of a corrupt system, and you can read those thoughts on social media week by week. We wonder whether eating crab from the Bay was safe over the last months. Could Ecology even properly test crab for those chemicals? Doubtful.
The following story is behind a paywall. You can either subscribe to the Times (I hope you do, we need this local reporting) or go the the library to read the whole story for free.
WA paper mill reported minor spill; fired worker warns it was far worse
A company report, accepted by state regulators, said that in late November a hole opened within the bowels of a pulp and paper mill and, briefly, poured a small stream of untreated wastewater into the city’s bay….Washington’s Department of Ecology didn’t investigate. That is, until months later, when John Tippins, a veteran millwright, gave inspectors at Ecology dozens of his own photos and videos from the November spill. He described the episode as “catastrophic,” the worst he had seen. Conrad Swanson reports. (Seattle Times)
Filed under: Admiralty Inlet, Environmental Protection, Jefferson County | Tagged: Environmental Protection, port townsend paper mill, WA DOE | 1 Comment »
