Response to Van Schoorl's Dioxin: A Community ChallengeEditor's Note: Tom Griffith's opinion piece below is in response to Bob Van Schoorl's article in our June/July 2007 issue. Mr. Van Schoorl's response to Mr. Griffith's opinion piece is also printed in the paragraph that follows. By Tom Griffith, ND It is great that South Sound Green Pages featured articles in the June/July 2007 issue on the serious matter of Olympia's dioxin Superfund site: Budd Bay. It was not difficult to catch an inherent bias in Port Commissioner Bob Van Schoorl's article, "Dioxin: A Community Challenge." The article is saturated with understatements of the problem, such as the sentence: "The amount of dioxin in those sediments would be less than a teaspoon." This is supposed to be reassuring, but the statement is baseless, given that the Department of Ecology has not even finished taking samples for measurement. Thus far, sediment sampling in Budd Inlet reveals dioxin levels from 0.1 parts per trillion (ppt) to 80 ppt. Yet state and federal agencies set the limit for open-water disposal of dioxins at 3.8 parts per trillion. Another example pertains to exposure. As Bob Van Schoorl states, it is true that most human exposure to dioxins comes through the food we eat. That is only because direct skin contact exposures are not common. However, in Budd Inlet - where recreational use of beaches occurs - dermal exposure and absorption of dioxins is not only possible, but also probable. The Port of Olympia is creatively "greening" up their plan to dredge for deep-vessel shipping. Mr. Van Schoorl mentions Governor Gregoire's Puget Sound Initiative as an environmentally-alluring rallying point for the Port's dredging plans. This dredge plan will stir up dioxin deposits that may be better off left alone, or capped off by the natural clean sedimentation that would result from the permanent breaching of the Fifth Avenue Dam. The "beneficial uses" of supposedly "clean" dredged sediments in Budd Inlet includes using it as fill for park grounds. This ought to raise suspicions and beg for closer scrutiny of the entire dredge plan. The dumping of contaminated sediment into the open-water dumpsite off of Ketron Island is also not a green solution. Meanwhile, the continued testing for dioxins in Budd Inlet may reveal diffuse contamination that is not readily cleared by dredging - and then what will the Port do? At some point we may have to actually examine the ecological detriments of mandated deep-vessel shipping, versus its economic benefits. In my end analysis, the creation of the estuary and consequent capping represent a truly green solution to the hypoxic stagnation of Budd Bay's ecosystem. Perhaps even real restoration of the Port might breathe some life into Budd Inlet - and downtown Olympia as well. I hope we have the fortitude to see that true "green" might involve a real effort to make Budd Inlet and the capitol city of Olympia a heralding example for the rest of Puget Sound. For example, I envision a thriving mixed-use boardwalk, waterfront parks, and water clean enough to swim and fish in. In the meantime, we ought to at least drop the pretenses and admit that - in the case of dredging Budd Inlet - "clean" ain't green. Thomas Griffith is a Naturopathic Physician practicing in Olympia at Vital HealthCare. He can be reached at 360-455-8281 or at http://www.DocGriffith.com/ Response to Tom Griffith's opinion piece By Bob Van Schoorl I would like to thank Mr. Griffith for his response. This is exactly where we need to go-a community dialogue on cleaning up Budd Inlet. The message that I have tried to convey is that cleaning up Budd Inlet is a community problem. It's time to move past making it a Port problem as some are inclined to do. The Port has initiated discussions with other local jurisdictions about how to approach the clean up. We are also engaged with the Department of Ecology. We have begun the process to create a clean up solution and it will likely engender considerable community discussion. In order to clean up Budd Inlet we are going to have to seriously address all of the stormwater outfalls around the Inlet. We need to look at septic systems. The Deschutes River and all of the streams that feed into Budd Inlet carry new contaminates into the Inlet every day. These will all recontaminate the Inlet if we don't also address them. The discovery of dioxin gives us an opportunity to move forward. I hope that we are up to the challenge. Bob Van Schoorl is a Port of Olympia Commissioner.
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