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04/23/2009: "Town May (Be Forced To) Apply For DOE Cleanup Grant Money"

The Department of Ecology (DOE) has confirmed that vinyl chloride is showing up in the monitoring wells around the Sutton Road dump site. The issue for DOE is the concentration of it relative to the concentration in surrounding groundwater areas.

SJC Environmental Health Officer SJC Mark Tompkins told Solid Waste Advisory (SWAC) members and the Town that the level found at the Sutton Road site, was “below the drinking water threshold,” however, “if you had a community water supply with vinyl chlorides at this level, you could drink it, but it is above ‘background levels’, so…you have to address it.”

At a recent Solid Waste Advisory Meeting (SWAC) it was suggested that Public Works (PW) had neglected to inform the members of SWAC that grant money may be available from the state for clean-up of the Sutton Road Site.

The grant money option was noted as part of a list errors and omissions SWAC member Mike Macdonald was presenting to the SWAC members, when Public Works staff member Ed Hale heatedly interrupted the proceeding, stating Macdonald was accusing PW staff of lying, and Hale was not going to stand for it.

Macdonald responded to Hale that he was attempting to lay out problems with the Final Environmental Statement (FEIS), and had not said anyone was lying, only that there were errors and omissions.

PW staff member Steve Alexander (Hale’s boss) attempted to calm down the discussion, and noted they had not included grant money options from the state for Sutton Road site because the “Sutton site does not qualify for it.”

Based on conversations and emails with the DOE, it turns out the Sutton Road Site would, in fact, be eligible for grant money.

Good thing too, since the SJC Health Department has informed the Town of Friday Harbor -the owner of Sutton Road site- that they must ask DOE to do an assessment of the capped land fill that is at the site to determine if the site is eligible or not for state grants.

The process sounds scary to the Town, since the first step is for the Town to contact DOE and ask them to review the site as a possible candidate for the state Toxics Cleanup Program.

Given that DOE has already stated the there are “hazardous substances” on and in the site, it is assumed that the site will be eligible for grant funding for cleanup.