'A disaster that miraculously did not happen'
3/29/14
As a barrage of rain poured down on the Samoa pulp mill's corroding storage tanks, Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld took the opportunity to explain why the millions of gallons of hazardous liquids contained inside must be removed.
”When it rains, the tanks fill up because they are not properly covered,” Blumenfeld said. “Literally, with the rain today, if we weren't pumping it out, they could overflow.”
Blumenfeld was one of several government officials who gathered at the run-down mill to watch the start of the multi-agency effort to remove and transport nearly 4 million gallons of hazardous liquids and toxic sludge from the Samoa site to a pulp mill in Longview, Wash.
The hazardous state of the 72-acre site -- owned by the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District since August -- was brought to the EPA's attention by the Wiyot Tribe, which urged the agency to investigate, Blumenfeld said. When EPA inspectors went to the site in September, Blumenfeld said they found “an enormous mess,” which initiated an emergency response.
The points of concern were the nearly 3 million gallons of caustic liquor -- chemical liquids used to break down wood chips into pulp material for paper products -- 10,000 gallons of sulfuric acid and 10,000 tons of “highly corrosive sludge” being stored in leaking, corroding storage tanks throughout the mill.
With the mill nestled between the Pacific Ocean and Humboldt Bay, Blumenfeld said it was “a disaster that miraculously did not happen.”
”When you add up the three factors -- the huge amount of poorly contained, hazardous materials located on a fault line between two incredibly important water bodies, that's why it's nationally significant,” he said.
With seismic events like the magnitude-6.8 earthquake that struck on March 9 increasing the likelihood of the chemicals spilling into the surrounding waters, EPA federal on-scene coordinator Steve Calanog said they “can't afford much more time.”
”If released into the environment, it would have an immediate effect on the bay and its ecosystems, and would effect the seafood and shellfish industry immediately,” Calanog said.
Cleanup workers from the EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Strike Team began pumping the first batches of the caustic liquid from the tanks into two storage trucks on Friday morning. Calanog said that these will be the first of an estimated 800 trucks loads that will make the 460-mile drive to the pulp mill in Longview, Wash., where they will be reused. To ensure safety, Calanog said the trucks will only transport the materials out of the mill during daylight hours.
California 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman attended the cleanup and thanked all of the county and federal agencies who “stepped up for this community and brought it to this point.”
”The fact that we made it through and got the EPA to come out here to secure the chemicals, that we made it through despite the government shutdown, it's nothing short of remarkable,” Huffman said.
Liquids located in areas inaccessible to trucks were pumped through a pipeline provided by the Pacific Strike Team into 10 temporary storage tanks, which will later be transported over to the trucks. Strike team workers elevated on cherry pickers held pipes that sucked in the liquors from holes cut into the top of the tanks. Calanog said this is “a slow and tedious process, and very dangerous.” Any contact with the liquors can cause severe chemical burns, he said.
Though the mill has changed hands several times since it was built about 50 years ago, Blumenfeld said one of its previous owners -- Evergreen Pulp Inc. -- is mainly responsible for the mess.
”This is the responsibility of the company that left in the middle of the night, and left this exactly as we found it a few months ago,” he said.
Blumenfeld said a good portion of the cleanup costs will be paid off by selling millions of dollars worth of scrap material from the mill, but “we will still go after the responsible parties.”
”We work to assign responsibility legally,” he said. “In some cases -- which partly applies to this one -- even if we wanted sue them, some of the people have no money.”
Huffman said the cleanup is “just the beginning” of an “exciting and ambitious vision” to turn the blighted mill into an economy opportunity that will create jobs.
”We're going to see it put to work for aquaculture, for sustainable, renewable energy research,” he said.
This vision came closer to reality after the Board of Supervisors approved a $100,000 community development block grant application from the county Administrative Office and the harbor district on Tuesday. The grant would pay for a feasibility and planning study that would “identify and analyze the highest and best uses for the site,” according to a county staff report.
Blumenfeld said that if all works according to plan, all of the liquor and sludge could be off the site in eight months. In the meantime, he said he's comfortable knowing that progress is being made.
”At least in the next week, as the levels go down and down, the risk diminishes accordingly,” Blumenfeld said.
