I was never rewarded for doing chores when I was a child. I was a part of the household, my mother told me, and she wasn’t going to applaud or pay me just because I did my part to help out.
I think I may need to send my mother out to Seattle, where commissioners for the Port of Seattle have decided not to dump PCB-contaminated sludge into Elliott Bay. I can see it now, my mother looking skeptically at the beamingly proud commissioners. “So you’re telling me you’re not dumping toxic sludge into the water,†she’d say, “and I’m supposed to be impressed? You’re going to have to do better than that.â€
The plan to dump the sludge, dredged from a Superfund site, into Elliot Bay had passed muster with the state and federal government, whose standards are considerably lower than many environmental scientists would like. Environmentalists thought it might not be such a good idea, though, and
with support from the state's newly formed Puget Sound Partnership, King County Executive Ron Sims and various scientists within the state's Department of Ecology and Department of Fish and Wildlife -- said the current momentum toward a cleaner Puget Sound calls for higher standards.
PCBs, which were once used as flame retardants, have been banned for nearly 30 years. Unfortunately they persist in the environment and don’t easily break down. Instead they accumulate in bodies and move up the food chain, from small fish to larger fish to people and other fish-eating animals. In fact, if I were the gambling type, I’d be willing to bet a big chunk of money (say, enough to repay my undergraduate loans?) that you’ve got PCBs in your body right now. Exposure to PCBs in the womb has been linked to learning and behavioral difficulties, and new research seems to indicate a correlation between parental PCB exposure and low male birth rate. I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I tell you the chemicals are also considered cancer-causing agents.
Personally, I’m thrilled that they’re working on a plan to dump the most polluted portion of the muck into a landfill and not the bay. Activists and citizens made noise about this, and they got somewhere – although they’ll have to keep the pressure on to make sure there’s no backtracking.
But if there’s one thing I learned from Mom, it’s that good enough doesn’t get rewarded. Not dumping toxic sludge into a body of water should be a no-brainer. Show me a plan to clean up the contamination already in Elliott Bay, and then I’ll be impressed.