[Occupymendocino] Fw: DEAL OR NO DEAL? - dioxins out on the mill site

[Ann Rennacker]

________________________________
From: Annemarie <aweibel at mcn.org>
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2018 10:41 AM
To: ,Ann Rennacker; ,David Gurney; Edward Oberweiser; ,Sue Boecker; Leslie Kashiwada
Subject: DEAL OR NO DEAL? - dioxins out on the mill site

Hi,
For your info, Annemarie

DEAL OR NO DEAL?

by Rex Gressett

If you are worried about the dioxins out on the mill site, you should be.

Mayor Lindy Peters has conceded that neither he nor the City Council had
the time or got paid enough to be able to keep up with all the meetings
that the administration seemed to be having regarding what to do about
the toxics at the mill site.

Marie Jones, Development Director, seems puzzled that after all these
years everybody is now asking her for information when the finish line
is so clearly in sight.

Since the crucial meetings that are mapping our toxic fate have been
conducted, as the Mayor has plainly said, it was difficult for shocked
citizens at the mayor’s informal meeting last week to readily credit the
strong assertion that these agencies and our own administrators are
making arrangements, agreements and understandings with GP that will
determine the fate of the mill and leave all existing contaminants on
the site.

In perpetuity.

Outgoing City Manager Linda Ruffing noted the pivotal decision-making
meeting in City Notes but did not discuss the content of the deal. The
three or four civic minded folk at the meeting with the mayor were
content to bask in the warmth of considerable mayoral charisma; they
just could not believe that our seaside toxic legacy had been confirmed.

Later in the day, when the meeting summary itself was presented, the
terrible done deal was still disbelieved.

The people of the City of Fort Bragg have been waiting for the mill site
FS (Feasibility Study), a final edict from the state’s Department of
Toxic Substances Control. People thought naively the feasibility study
would open the discussion.

In fact, the terms of the feasibility study are being worked out now in
interagency conference, and we are already screwed.

When they present the Feasibility Study to you, they won’t be asking for
your opinion. They’ll be telling you, Fort Bragg, what the done deal is.

The mere suggestion that a decision has been made that precludes other
options was hugely disturbing to the mayor and the four citizens who had
come to his weekly meet and greet. The secrecy had been so total, the
silence of our city administrators that went to the meeting so complete,
and the significance to the City so shocking that outrage, disbelief and
stumbling disassociation from the facts melted down productive conversation.

As the meeting participants puzzled and wondered in incredulous
defensive annoyance, Marie Jones was fetched from her work at the permit
counter to sort out the confusion. Just what had actually happened that
day in far away Santa Rosa, Ms. Jones?

Our Development Director had attended with City Manager Linda Ruffing.

“Ha ha ha,” Ms. Jones mirthlessly chuckled. A Deal? No way. Absolutely
no deal had been made. We have lots of meetings, in fact, we have them
all the time. This meeting and the one subsequently in January were but
two meetings among many. Why for heaven’s sake would we necessarily have
to tell the City Council? Why inform the mayor?

No deal has been made, she said.

The first of two significant meetings was held November 30, 2017 at the
regional headquarters of RWQCB (Regional Water Quality Control Board) in
Santa Rosa.

The other more recent meeting was in January at the Department of Toxic
Substances Control. In spite of many promises to release the summary of
the most recent meeting, the City has not yet done so.

At the November Water Quality meeting were representatives from
Department of Toxic Substances Control,  Glen Young our own Fort Bragg
toxic cleanup consultant, Linda Ruffing and Marie Jones from Fort Bragg
City Hall. The Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), the Coastal
Commission (CC), the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), and the Department
of Safety of Damns (DOSOD) — all the agencies that could possibly shoot
down or at a Feasibility Study had gathered to put their heads together
and make some sausage.

The meeting rolled right over the Fort Bragg City Council resolution
demanding full cleanup of the mill site.

Fort Bragg, like an unloved stepchild, was ignored as the Agencies got
down to business.

Georgia-Pacific, aka the Koch Brothers (in absentia) was disabused of
their own idea of making the area below the dam a danger area. G-P might
be trying but they were not going to wiggle out of agency jurisdiction,
DOSOD (Department of Safety of Dams) bespoke. California Law assuring
public access to our own beaches, intercepted the simple GP idea that we
just fence off the beach. And, No, GP would not be allowed to lower the
water level in the wetlands to make the dam irrelevant. Instead GP was
being commanded to fix the dam and also install a barrier across Pond 8
to further sequester toxins from possible leakage onto the beach.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control took the initiative: "If
contaminants are left in place in mill pond, DTSC would consider dam to
be a containment structure for contamination and long-term Operations
and Maintenance (O&M) would be overseen by DTSC."

In one fell stroke the carcinogenic dioxins in the mill ponds were
converted into an asset. They might be toxic but they would get us a
brand new dam from GP. That solved everything. GP repairs the dam, the
dioxins stay, and the fences go around it. The ponds shall be restored,
but not cleansed of their poisons.

The Coastal Commission representative remarked somewhat tardily that
remediation is not allowed at all in wetlands anyway, only restoration.

Who knew?

This is all low risk, the agency people assured each other and anyway it
will all be fenced off. The issue with the warning signs is a tricky
one, apparently signs will not be required at Pond 8 but will be
required everywhere else. Everything gets fenced. George Reinhardt’s
beloved vision of day-lighting the creeks died right then, although
George does not know it (far as I know). Poor guy.

According to GP the dioxins are concentrated more heavily in the
proposed day-lighting area than the worst of the ponds. They will have
to be fenced. GP is calling the shots.

Just imagine, I called that a deal. Whatever was I thinking? The mayor
is strenuously trying to tell me that a deal is something that is on
paper, it’s a contract, not a bargaining session no one knew about. I
don't know if the deal will stand. Do the people or the Council have
notice of what is intended for us? Will there be opportunity for
resistance and defiance? Yes, there will. But I don’t see the City
Council taking the lead, or even following developments.

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