Radiation Danger in Magnuson Park in Seattle – Part 2 of 4
This is the second in a series of blog posts about the radioactive contamination left over from World War II at Magnuson Park in Seattle. On May 29th there was an “Open House” at the Mountaineers building in Magnuson Park where the Navy, the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Department of Ecology presented the history of the situation and plans for dealing with it at placard stations around the room. For details on the history of the contaminations, see Part 1.
There are national standards for cleaning up hazardous waste contamination. There are more stringent state standards in Washington State. There are special standards for cleaning up what have been designated as Superfund sites by the Environmental Protection agency. The Washington State Department of Health has its own standards for industrial work spaces and recreational spaces. These allow more radiation than the other standards. Each of these different designations carry with them a process that requires documentation of the problems at the site in question, exploration of alternative for clean up and a set of public meetings so that the affected citizens can have input to the planning process.
After four years of sitting on the contamination at Magnuson Park and making no public announcement because the Navy felt that there was no danger to the public because public access to the contaminated areas had been prevented, the situation finally reached public awareness last March. The Navy, which is responsible for cleaning up the contamination decided that suddenly the situation was so critical that they declared that a “Time Critical Cleanup Response” was necessary. This allowed them to circumvent any of the usual processes associated with the different site designations including their environmental impact statements, exploration of alternatives for clean up, public notification and input, and final discussion and decisions on the best way to proceed with the cleanup.
It appears that the Navy chose to work closely with the Washington State Department of Health because they had the lowest standards for allowable radiation to remain after a cleanup. The Washington State Department of Ecology was brought into the conversation very late in the game in May. Although they are the senior agency in charge of this cleanup, a representative from Ecology explained that they are stretched pretty thin and that they sometimes let “independent cleanups” go forward while they concentrate on other projects. Apparently, the cleanup of Magnuson Park was one of those “independent cleanups” that was being left to the Navy.
During conversations with the experts scattered around the room and question and answer sessions conducted by Washington State Representative Gerry Pollet, what became clear to me was that the situation was anything but clear. The experts didn’t seem to know things they should have know, the explanations for why the situation was now time critical were poor to non-existent, the plan for removal might be a good plan but the “expert” from the Washington State Department of Ecology didn’t really know much about the details. People were frustrated by the format. They wanted a public meeting with a panel of experts fielding questions from the audience. The reasons given for not holding such meetings were again poor or non-existent. The Navy may have avoided the usual processes but what passed for their new process last night was a garbled and confusing mess.
Magnuson Park and Lake Washington in Seattle:
