News

Dioxin cleanup of former Simpson mill site nears completion

11/13/09 With the recent controversy over dioxins at various sites near the bay, Humboldt Baykeeper is highlighting the near completion of what it deems a complete and responsible cleanup: The former Simpson plywood mill on Del Norte Street.

Dave McEntee, vice president of operational services and external affairs for Simpson Timber Co., said the main part of the cleanup plan should be complete within two to four weeks.

”We may have to come back in spring for additional planted fore restoration,” McEntee said. “The heavy lifting -- the reconstruction -- will be done.”

The cleanup project at the former flea market site, located behind Costco at the southern end of Eureka, began in February 2008 as a part of a 2006 settlement with Baykeeper and the Californians for Alternatives to Toxics. It calls for the removal of contaminated sediment as well as restoring the area to a functioning wetland and installing a network of groundwater-monitoring wells to ensure that residual subsurface contamination doesn't leave the site.

Humboldt Baykeeper and allies force EPA to close loopholes

Nov. 4, 2007 Press Release

Humboldt Baykeeper

EPA CRITICIZES CALIFORNIA’S LAX POLLUTION PERMITS

(San Francisco) On October 31 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report criticizing California’s water pollution permits. EPA agreed to perform an audit of randomly selected permits as a condition of a settlement reached in a lawsuit brought by San Francisco Baykeeper, Communities for a Better Environment and Ecological Rights Foundation in 2006.

San Francisco Baykeeper, Humboldt Baykeeper, Communities for a Better Environment and Ecological Rights Foundation sued EPA in 2006 to require the agency to stop California’s Water Boards from including loopholes in pollution permits that effectively exempt large industrial polluters and cities’ sewage plants from having to meet deadlines for pollution limits.

These extensions allowed major dischargers, such as the Tesoro oil refinery, to discharge elevated levels of toxic pollutants such as mercury, dioxin, chlorinated organic pesticides, and PCBs, which are dangerous to both human beings and aquatic species. The Water Boards are tasked with enforcing clean water laws to protect sensitive waterways such as San Francisco, San Diego and Humboldt Bays, the Sacramento, American and San Joaquin Rivers and Santa Monica Bay, which are already listed by California and EPA as severely degraded with toxic pollutants.

Reflections on the San Francisco Oil Spill

Pete Nichols

Nov. 22, 2007

The headline read “Oil Spill Fouls Shores in San Francisco Area.”

58,000 gallons of bunker fuel, the most toxic and least-distilled of petroleum products, gushed from a container ship in San Francisco Bay late last week, impacting beaches up to 20 miles north of the entrance to the bay.

The full extent of the damage done to the San Francisco Bay, the coast and the wildlife that live there has yet to be fully assessed, and perhaps never will. But if we here on the North Coast needed yet another reason not to pursue a container port for Humboldt Bay, this is one to seriously consider.

Humboldt Bay has one of the most treacherous port entrances in the Pacific Northwest. The container ship responsible for the San Francisco spill was same size vessel that would be negotiating the jaws of Humboldt Bay’s mouth to off-load its container cargo.

It would be just a matter of time before one of those massive container ships ended up perched upon the South Jetty, coating the bay and coast in an oily goo. It is not a matter of if, but when, it would happen.

Timber Company Agrees To Clean Up Cancer-Causing Dioxin

Feb. 18, 2008 Press Release

Humboldt Baykeeper and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics

EUREKA - The Simpson Timber Company, in a settlement with two environmental groups, has agreed to remove tons of sediment laden with cancer-causing dioxin from a contaminated site, a former Simpson Plywood Mill, adjacent to Humboldt Bay at the foot of Del Norte Street in Eureka.

The timber company was sued in 2006 by the two Eureka-based environmental groups, Humboldt Baykeeper and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CATs). Tests were conducted, and dioxin was found at levels tens of thousands of times higher than Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, some of the highest levels found in the nation. The test sites were near where Simpson commonly sprayed plywood with the now-widely-banned wood preservative pentachlorophenol in the 1960’s.

Eureka Waterfront Site To Be Cleaned Of Dioxin

Nathan Rushton, Eureka Reporter

Feb. 20, 2008

EUREKA - To avoid further litigation, Simpson Timber Co. has struck a deal with two environmental groups to remove tons fo sediment laden with the toxic compound dioxin from a former mill site at the foot of Del Norte Street in Eureka.

The settlement agreement stems from a lawsuit filed in 2006 under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act against Simpson Timber by Eureka-based Humboldt Baykeeper and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics.

Tests of the soil where plywood was apparently sprayed in the 1960s with the now-banned wood preservative pentachlorophenol found dioxin at levels at tens of thousands of times higher than thresholds established by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the environmental groups.

Humboldt Baykeeper director Pete Nichols said in a news release that the settlement is a pivotal step in addressing and fixing the dioxin problem in and around Humboldt Bay.

“The work required under this agreement will help protect those who fish from this public pier and throughout the bay, in addition to the fish and other inhabitants of the Bay,” Nichols said.

According to the consent decree document, Simpson Timber denies all of the allegations raised by the environmental groups in the original lawsuit of violations and that the conditions posed an “imminent or substantial endangerment” to people or the environment.