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.
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