11 February 2003
Minutes
The meeting was convened at the Vashon Chamber office. Present were: Board President James English, Secretary Steven Macdonald, and Treasurer Nan Hammett. Director Macdonald chaired the meeting. The agenda is attached as the last page of these minutes.
Announcements
Greg Glass sent interesting reply to a query from Secretary Macdonald, who asked " I'm just curious: where did the ore come from, that Asarco smelted in Everett and Tacoma?":
The Everett Smelter was constructed to handle ores from the Monte Cristo mines in eastern Snohomish County. Those ores included some high-arsenic materials - recall the ongoing issue of high naturally occurring arsenic in ground water in the area near Granite Falls. A rail line was built between the mines and the smelter in Everett; they had a terrible time keeping that rail line running because of floods, snow/avalanches, etc. I believe the Everett Smelter imported some ores or concentrates from other locations when materials from Monte Cristo were unavailable for one reason or another. Probably from western US states and British Columbia. The book from the Mountaineers, "Monte Cristo", has a pretty good discussion of these issues.
Regarding the Tacoma Smelter, there never was a specific mine associated with its operations. It operated as a "toll smelter" - which means it charged a smelting fee for processing materials that it never took ownership of. As a deep water smelter, delivery of materiel by ship (as well as rail) to Tacoma was relatively easy. It specialized in smelting "complex ores", which included lots of high-arsenic ores from various locations that other smelters did not want. I don't think there is any easily available accounting for all of the sources of Tacoma Smelter feedstocks over time....but sources included locations all around the Pacific (South America, Canada, Alaska, Philippines), throughout the US, and probably elsewhere too. I think they also processed some "revert materials" like flue dusts from other smelters to recover arsenic or other byproducts.
Review and adoption of minutes from prior meeting (1/21/03)
The minutes were adopted as revised by President English.
Treasurer's report
Treasurer Hammett presented an itemized report dated 2/11/2003, showing expenditures to date of $15,898.20.
The Board reviewed the Work Progress Report, covering the period 12/1/02 to 1/31/03, sent to Ecology.
Technical consulting services
Contractor progress and continuation were discussed separately for each contractor.
The Board continues to be satisfied with the progress made by IERE on the three contracted tasks: R5 (technical consulting on environmental labs), R6* (technical consulting on sources of soil, soil amendments), and D1 (webpage). As noted below, Rita Schenck reported on the progress of the soil amendments project to VMICC-HMRC.
The Board continues to be dissatisfied with the progress made by Kleinfelder on the six contracted tasks: R1-R4 (independent scientific-technical review of documents), D4 (framework for surveys), and D7 (focus sheets, event surveys). An apologetic memo from Scott Dwyer, dated 11 February, was reviewed; it promised completion of the review of "2001 Ecy report on interim action trigger levels for arsenic & lead" by 19 February, and review of "2001 Ecy report on VMI Child-Use Area Sample Results" by 3 March. Specific timelines for completion were specifically required by Kathy Seel, the Vashon-IRPPC project officer at Ecology, in order for IRPPC to continue Kleinfelder's contract.
The Board discussed the draft Agreement sent by Earthworks Environmental Inc, which covered three tasks: R1-R4 (independent scientific-technical review of documents), D3 (periodic column for island newspapers), and D4 (framework for surveys); Ecology completed its administrative review and approved it on 4 February. On 7 February, Secretary Macdonald asked Earthworks to conduct a scientific-technical review of the 2001 Ecology report on VMI Child-Use Area Sample Results. The Board additionally approved asking Earthworks to consider modification of the agreement to add task D7 (focus sheets, event surveys).
VMICC HMRC meeting 2/7/03
The minutes of the HMRC meeting were reviewed. The Board decided to ask Earthworks, under its contracted activity D3, to work with IERE on the newspaper article describing the phytoremediation study results.
The activity of the soil amendments project, supported by Vashon-IRPPC in its contract with IERE, was reviewed.
Ecology PPG 03-05 grant
A confusing communication from Kathy Seel, the Ecology project officer for the Vashon-IRPPC PPG grant, was discussed: she said verbally that we would be awarded $30,000, but did not say whether that was for a single year or the full 2003-05 biennium. President English has asked for clarification. The Board reviewed the options for a budget which would be either 50% of our submitted budget, or 25% of our submitted budget. It was decided that, rather than to completely eliminate whole projects, as we had done last time, we would subject the entire budget to an across-the-board reduction.
11 February 2003
Agenda
1. Announcements
2. Review and adoption of minutes from prior meeting (1/21/2003)
3. Treasurer's report
4. Technical consulting services: Contractor progress, continuation
?Kleinfelder (R1, R2, R3, R4, D4, D7)
?IERE (R5, R6*, D1)
?Earthworks (R1-4, D3, D4)
5. IRPPC projects
6. VMICC HMRC meeting 2/7
?Symposia planning
?draft Guide for Healthcare Practitioners
7. Ecology PPG 03-05 grant
8. Board membership and composition
Next meetings
7:15pm, second Tuesday evening of each month: 11 March, 8 April, 13 May. Location: Vashon Chamber of Commerce office, 17232 Vashon Highway.