ALRC Meeting Minutes

4 May 2001

The Arsenic Lead Remediation Committee met on Friday May 4th in the Vashon Public Library. In attendance were: Jim English, Lyman Houghton, Steve MacDonald, Nan Hammett, and Rita Schenck (ALRC Members), also Jake Jacobovitch, and Jo Robinson attended from the Vashon-Maury Island Community. Our visitors included Caren Adams (King County) and Dawn Hooper and Norm Peck, Ecology, and Victor Medina and Frank Peryea (WSU).

The minutes from previous meetings were approved

Victor Medina presented a plan for research on the island. The work proposal was based on the concerns expressed by ALRC in past meetings and included a two part program to be performed simultaneously. The goal of the study is to identify ways that islanders can garden to reduce their risks of heavy metal exposure in foods and to actually decrease the heavy metals in soils through phytoremediation.

The first part was to be led by Frank Peryea and will evaluate the heavy-metal gardening interactions on the island. The plan will start with testing heavy metals in foods grown in gardens on the island, including a speciation of arsenic in those foods. Further studies will rely on gardener/volunteers on the island gardening in different ways, through soil modification and through raised beds. Different treatments will be evaluated to identify the best ones for minimizing heavy metal uptake in plants.

The second part of the program would focus on the potential for phytoremediation on the island. It would start with a survey of plants growing on the island to find which are natural heavy metal concentrators. These plants would be further studied to identify how best to grow and harvest them for maximum benefit.

Jo Robinson requested that any information about the treatments or soil amendments that might be useful in limiting exposure should be disseminated as soon as possible.

There was some discussion of the funding sources for the work. The intent was to request support from King County although other sources might be available. Norm Peck suggested that Ecology was not interested in funding basic research.

The Institute for Environmental Research and Education (IERE) would act as the liaison on the Island and perform some of the sampling and analysis under these proposals. There was some discussion of the potential for conflict of interest because Rita Schenck is the executive director of IERE and a member of ALRC. IERE is interested in supporting the community in this and related issues. The committee expressed their confidence that Rita would work to the highest ethical standards and would recuse herself in matters over which ALRC had financial control.

The meeting moved on to the issues of public outreach and disclosure of the results for the child use areas. Dawn Hooper laid out a plan in which property owners would be initially informed by phone and by letter as to their results. After a short period of time, a special face-to-face session would occur with Health and Ecology and the private care providers. On that same day public use administrators would have their Health /Ecology session, then the local press would be briefed. A community wide meeting would be announced and then finally a press release would be made the day following these sessions.

Ecology was having a map prepared that would identify sampling locations and would include a table listing results in publicly owned areas (names and addresses included) as well as privately owned areas (listed by number indexed to the map locations). Members of ALRC argued that a listing by number was tantamount to a listing by name, and that this would not be a good way to disclose the information. Instead, it was suggested that a mean and range be presented for daycare centers, and that site-specific information be available by mail or through the care providers themselves. This approach would reduce the potential for panic in the community while preserving the community's right to know.

Concern was expressed that individuals needed to be treated with consideration. Being treated in this manner would invite islanders to be open to further studies.

When asked why Ecology was in such haste to disclose this data now, Norm responded that they were doing so in response to the request for timeliness by ALRC. Jim English made it very clear that ALRC in no way intended that any communication be made without all due deliberation and quality control. On the contrary, ALRC is very concerned that information be provided to the community in such a way that it can be received dispassionately and therefore be of use to the citizens. To this end, ALRC has repeatedly requested that data and information be brought early to it so that it has time to digest it and perform its function as a conduit of information between Ecology and King County and the island community. It was pointed out that Ecology's public disclosure plan did not include a time for ALRC to review the data set. ALRC requested that this oversight be corrected.

Ecology provided their draft interim action levels as shown below:

Areas	Arsenic	Lead
Schools & Day care centers	100 ppm	700 ppm
Parks & camps	200 ppm	1000 ppm

They are based on a 4-6 year exposure scenario, as opposed to the standard 70 year exposure scenario.

Ecology provided a partial table of contents for the Tacoma Smelter Plume Tasks and a "Wish List" of issues that the Department is considering including in the statement of work. Since the meeting had run overtime, this listing was not discussed.

The next meeting of ALRC is scheduled for 1 June 2001 at 11:30 in the library