ECAC - UNOCAL Beginnings

The Department of Ecology initiated the cleanup of the UNOCAL site at Point Edwards in 1993, following the rules of the Washington State Model Toxics Control Act. The terms dictated that there should be three parties in the cleanup, the polluter UNOCAL, the Department of Ecology and a citizen group. The citizen group would have no decision making power, but would monitor the steps of the cleanup and report to the public, giving the details of the process and the cleanup issues as well as voicing their opinions of the cleanup.

The citizen group that assembled to participate in the cleanup named itself "Edmonds Citizens' Awarenss Committee". This group hired a technical interpreter, Greg Glass, to monitor the process and interpret the technical language so that ordinary citizens could understand the cleanup issues. In this way citizens would be able to follow the cleanup, submit comments at various stages of the cleanup. The citizens then could aid the process by voicing their views to both UNOCAL and the Department of Ecology.

Over the years since the beginning of this process, the cleanup has stalled from time to time, but now the final stages of the cleanup have begun.

Comments

[Dennis Sellin]

Some neighbors near the cleanup site have been inquiring about the odor that is coming from the site.
Here is what Chevron has to say about it:
Health and safety, whether of our workers on-site, or our neighbors around us, is of paramount concern to us. To ensure the health and safety of all, we have instituted several safety measures. One of these is to employ a full-time safety supervisor, who monitors air quality at various locations throughout the site, throughout the day. Should air quality ever exceed the health-protective standards as provided by the Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, we would stop work at the site and take immediate measures to meet the standards, although this has not happened to date.
However, it is true that there is an odor coming from the site. We regret and sincerely apologize for this, and wish there were a less odorous way to clean the site, but the soils we are excavating are odorous. What we have done is to use odor suppressants to control the odor. These suppressants have been in use since late September (2007), and we hope that neighbors are noticing an improvement.