Second Meeting at Magnuson Park about Radioactive Contamination on July 18, 2013 – Part 1 of 3
Last night, I attended the public meeting at the Mountaineer’s Headquarters at Magnuson Park in Seattle called by the Navy and the State of Washington Departments of Health and Ecology to discuss the Navy’s plans for cleaning up radium left over from World War II in a couple of buildings and in the soil outside of the buildings. Having been disappointed by the previous meeting back at the end of May, I was hoping for a better dialog between the Federal and State Representatives. The turnout was low and there were a lot of empty seats. This might have been because the meeting was not well publicized having been announced only one week before it was to be held.
There were two representatives from the Navy, one from the Washington State Department of Ecology and two from the Washington State Department of Health. Also in attendance was State Representative Gerry Pollet who represents the 46th Legislative District where Magnuson Park is located. Rep. Pollet is also the Executive Director of Heart of America Northwest, a public watchdog group that has been working on alerting the public and pressuring government agencies about the horrible radioactive contamination at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State and other contaminated sites in the region. He is a lawyer who is well versed in environmental law in general and laws pertaining to the storage and cleanup of radioactive contamination.
Unlike the original meeting which was held only for the purpose of a belated notification of the public of the radiation contamination at Magnuson Park and the Navy’s plan for a rushed cleanup that did not follow the usual process of public comment and environmental impact statements, last night’s meeting was intended to reassure the public that the Navy and State agencies were open to public input about the clean up. There was a brief presentation of the situations and the Navy plan followed by an hour of question and answer. Following that, there was about an hour of public testimony that was “on the record”, being recorded by camera and a court reporter. It was interesting to note that the schedule was crowded although the room was less than half full. It was obvious that had all the seats been filled there was no way that everyone who had questions or comments for the record could have been heard.
The first presentation was by Rep. Pollet who pointed out that the current Navy plan was inadequate to protect the health of the citizens who used the park. The level of radiation the Navy was planning on leaving behind, 15 milliRems, was higher than allowed by either Federal or State laws that applied to such cleanup and would lead to higher rates of cancer among frequent users of the park. He said that not all possible contamination sites had been adequately explored including the sailing dock and beach where one of the contaminated sewer pipes flowed into Lake Washington. He also said that the Navy had not provided documents required by normal cleanups like a Feasibility study, Environmental Impact Statement or Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis. He raised the issue of which protocol was being followed, the Federal process called CERLA or the State process called MOTA.
Links:
King 5 report on May 29 meeting at Magnuson Park
King 5 report on July 18 meeting at Magnuson Park
Washington State Department of Health web page on Magnuson Park cleanup
Department of Navy web page on Magnuson Park cleanup
1975 Magnuson Park Master Plan:
