Edmonds UNOCAL / Chevron Cleanup

www.unocaledmonds.info

For more information regarding the UNOCAL/Chevron cleanup visit this current website!

The UNOCAL Site

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Biographies

FRANCES MURPHY - Founder and Past President of ECAC

I was a teacher in the Edmonds School District for some years. Being an inlander, I found this community on the water beautiful and fascinating. I have always felt that living on the shores of Puget Sound was both a privilege and an obligation to learn about and protect the abundant marine life in its waters. So I formed the Brackett’s Landing Foundation, a non profit foundation with the mandate “to teach our residents about this wonderful resource, to appreciate and protect it.”

Over the years Brackett’s Landing Foundation has helped to form the Edmonds Beach Rangers, donated funds for Beach Ranger projects, lobbied to keep the walking path open along the Edmonds Waterfront, lobbied in Olympia to our State representative to support the funds to purchase the waterfront property on the south side of the ferry dock, worked to protect the Edmonds Marsh, increased the size of the Meadowdale Beach County Park using grant funds to buy property in critical areas and served on the Edmonds Citizens’ Awareness Committee, the citizens’ oversight committee for the UNOCAL Cleanup at Point Edwards.

GREG GLASS - Technical Consultant to ECAC

I am an independent consultant with an office in Seattle and more than 30 years experience in environmental consulting. In the mid-1970s, I worked for a federal agency in Washington, DC on natural hazards. For about 10 years after that I worked for two large consulting firms on numerous environmental projects, including the early phases of hazardous waste (RCRA) and site cleanup (Superfund) programs. I have been an independent consultant since 1987. I have specialized in contaminated site projects for more than 25 years, focusing on site characterization (study designs and data evaluations), risk assessment, the development of cleanup standards, and cleanup policy questions.

I moved to Washington in 1979. As Ecology was developing the state-level program for contaminated sites under the citizens initiative Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), I helped prepare the environmental impact statement on the proposed Cleanup Regulation (Chapter 173-340 WAC). I was also a primary author of Ecology’s statistical guidance document for data evaluations under MTCA. I continue to consult with Ecology, as well as other federal, state, and local agencies, industry, and community groups. With funding from Ecology’s Public Participation Grants program, I have been a technical consultant to community groups for the Everett Smelter site, the former DuPont Works site, and the Bellingham Bay/Whatcom Waterway site, among others. Over the past 25 years I have been involved in studies of many of the regional Superfund sites and numerous large, highly-ranked MTCA sites.

I have worked as the technical consultant to ECAC for the UNOCAL Edmonds site since 1995. Over the prolonged cleanup process for this site, I have reviewed work plans for site investigations prepared by UNOCAL and its consultants, evaluated the cumulative information on the nature and extent of site contamination, participated on behalf of the community in the development of cleanup standards and long-term monitoring programs, and visited the site frequently during physical cleanup activities to monitor progress and site conditions. I have enjoyed working with Frances and Denis Murphy and Duane Uusitalo to educate citizens about the site and support them in making their concerns known to Ecology. In recent years I have represented ECAC and the community as a member of the Technical Work Group, which was convened by Ecology to discuss issues as cleanup plans were being developed. Multiple stakeholders are represented on that Technical Work Group, including UNOCAL/Chevron, Ecology, the City of Edmonds, the Port of Edmonds, and ECAC.

I am currently monitoring the 2007-2008 Lower Yard cleanup activities, including an evaluation of any remaining data gaps in unremediated areas, and look forward to reviewing the post-cleanup ground water monitoring data to assess site conditions and compliance with cleanup standards.

DUANE UUSITALO - President of ECAC

My interest in the environment got started in 1948 when my Father took me to see spawning salmon in a small stream near Poulsbo. Growing up by Big Scandia Creek and Liberty Bay gave me many chances to discover the interconnections between the life forms in and around Puget Sound.

I spent 29 years teaching science in the Edmonds School District at Meadowdale Middle School. In 1982 I started a classroom salmon program that lasted until my retirement in 1996 and evolved into our present salmon hatchery located on the upper end of Lunds Gulch Creek. Frances Murphy, a teacher at Meadowdale Elementary, asked for help setting up her own salmon program and provided me an opportunity to learn about Brackett’s Landing Foundation and Friends of Lunds Gulch Creek, plus the UNOCAL cleanup group, known as Edmonds Citizens Awareness Committee, ECAC.

Since our retirements Frances and I have worked to protect Lunds Gulch Creek and Meadowdale Beach County Park. By applying for and receiving grant monies we were able to spend over 3 million dollars on buying properties along the top edges of the gulch to protect the long term viability of both the stream and park.

For a variety reasons Frances and her husband, Denis, had to step back from the leadership of ECAC and asked me to take over the role of President. The last four years have proceeded with periods of stops and starts in the cleanup process, but with 2008 it appears that the lower yard will be finished and the verification monitoring of the total cleanup will begin.

It is our hope to keep you updated on the cleanup process by presenting periodic reports by Greg Glass and others here at our blog site. If you have questions or concerns please contact us with a blog comment!

PS--Don't forget to check the separate UNOCAL/Chevron Cleanup website listed on the left side of this page.