Shelton Blog: Mason County Commissioner Meeting May 3rd 2010

Jerry Lingle was in attendance (unfortunately my auto-focus was not)

Linda Ring Erickson was in attendance (unfortunately my auto-focus was not)

Ecology came and gave a presentation on dioxins in our water and sediments. Ecology says the levels meet health department standards but not clean up standards. They intend to clean up the bays but they are not in a big hurry to do it due to the pollutions levels meeting the (lax) health standards. They hope to get industry polluters to help pay for this, but it does not sound like Ecology will force them to. Dioxins are uniformly distributed through out Oakland Bay (did they come in on the wind?) . Dioxins in Shelton bay are concentrated near Olympic Panel Products, Simpson and the old pulp mill site.

Surface level dioxins are lower than sub surface levels. Samples one foot down measured over 900ppt dioxin. Ecology suspects that most dioxins are historical but admits that some dioxins could be current. Ecology will look into current dioxin sources.

Of course dioxins are still being emitted! Simpson burns salty hog fuel in its waterfront biomass incinerator. A new larger biomass incinerator will only make the problem worse.

"The dioxin and wood waste pollution are consistent with decades of log raft, mill, lumber and wood waste-to-energy activities on the Shelton waterfront."

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/12/14/1464039/oakland-bay-passes-test.html#ixzz1LLpOUlc3
I don't care what they say, I'm still not eating the clams or oysters from either Oakland or Shelton bay and I won't let my children play in the sediments or go beach combing in those places.

You can Download the Ecology Presentation Here