In a resounding victory for residents of the north coast and wildlife in the Humboldt Bay and Mad River Slough, Ecological Rights Foundation (EcoRights) prevailed in a lawsuit against Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) in March 2003 for thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act at the company’s Arcata Mill site. The mill is located on the north coast of California, near the city of Arcata, where the Mad River Slough meets Humboldt Bay.
This victory is considered a critical step in holding SPI accountable for their decades-long use of the Mad River Slough as a drain for their contaminated stormwater runoff, and in cleaning up one of the most contaminated sites on the Bay.
The History
The Arcata Mill has been in operation since the early 1950s. From the 1960s through the late 1980s, SPI used pentachlorophenol (“penta”), a fungicide used to preserve lumber. Due to its intense toxicity and its byproduct, dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals known, penta was banned by the federal government in the late 1980s.
During the time of its use, lumber was dipped into a 2,500-gallon dip-tank of penta. In depositions from SPI workers, EcoRights learned of carelessness with the contaminants during the wood treatment process. They reported that the chemicals spilled onto the ground as it was applied, splashed out of the dip-tank, and that the sludge from the dip-tank was shoveled directly onto the ground, which, over time, saturated the area. In addition, for years, the kiln-drying process of treating lumber created contaminated condensation that drained onto the ground at the site, and was discharged into the Mad River Slough. As the practice of using penta (among a long list of toxic chemicals) continued, so did saturation and contamination of the site.
Despite the federal ban on penta, the repercussions from its use are still being felt. Penta remains in soils for years, resulting in continuous toxic discharge long after its use was outlawed. Although SPI had replaced its use of this fungicide with other preservatives, it continued discharging the chemical components into the Mad River Slough and into the groundwater beneath the site. The frequent rains in the north coast cause stormwater and groundwater to come in recurrent contact with the contaminated soils, repeatedly flushing contaminated sediments into the Mad River Slough, and ultimately into Humboldt Bay.
Making matters worse, the groundwater under the site is only 6 feet below the surface, resulting in a profound groundwater contamination. In fact, a groundwater plume underneath the site was found to contain high levels of both penta and dioxin.
SPI’s contaminated stormwater discharges and contamination of the groundwater supply were of particular concern because of the mill’s proximity to the Mad River Slough, Humboldt Bay, oyster farms, and a nearby aquifer, which is a source of drinking water for local residents. In addition, these chemicals are known to bioaccumulate in the tissues of fish and shellfish, causing a health hazard to people and wildlife who consume the fish. Clearly, it was paramount that someone intervene to stop this blatant disregard for the health of the residents and wildlife of the region.
The Law
The federal Clean Water Act requires any person who discharges or proposes to discharge pollutants into waters of the United States, including stormwater discharges associated with industrial activity, to submit a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit application to the State Water Resources Control Board.
Because of this requirement, SPI was monitoring runoff at the site, and water coming out of the end of drainage pipes that drain stormwater runoff from the mill site into the Mad River Slough. SPI found penta to be present, long after its federal ban, in their stormwater runoff. To comply with the Clean Water Act monitoring requirements, SPI filed these findings with the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB).
Based on public documents from RWQCB files, the judge in our lawsuit found SPI responsible for thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act. This included the direct and indirect discharge of pollutants into the Mad River Slough and Humboldt Bay every time that groundwater – contaminated with pollutants from SPI – rose to meet surface waters.
In addition to the runoff data gathered by SPI, EcoRights tested three sites on the Mad River Slough and Humboldt Bay for dioxin: the Mad River Slough at the mill site, a tidally influenced area 2.5 miles north of the mill, and the Hookton Slough, a less impacted area at the southern tip of the bay. We found extremely high levels of dioxin in sediments near the pipe coming from the SPI site, with elevated levels of dioxin in mussels and three crab species. At the site north of the mill, there were lower levels of dioxin, but it was still present, with lower levels found in crabs. Finally, there were practically no traces of dioxin found in crabs, mussels, and sediment at the Hookton Slough area, farthest from the site. This monitoring proved that SPI’s mill was the source of the dioxin contamination.
The Lawsuit
In October 2000, EcoRights served the company with a 60-day notice of our intent to sue for violating the federal Clean Water Act.
Added to the lengthy list of violations committed by SPI was one additional charge. In an act of desperation after the 60-day notice of our intent to sue was served on the company, SPI covertly buried mounds of toxic sludge directly into the dunes near the mill site to hide the contaminated evidence. Upon inspection of the site, however, the Department of Fish and Game found the toxic dump site by following tire tracks onto the dunes where the sludge had been dumped.
The Outcome
The case was resolved by a Consent Decree (an agreement reached by both parties) in March 2003. In addition to cleaning up the contamination at the mill site, SPI paid $500,000 to the state to buy wetlands in the area, as part of the $1.2 million federal settlement. The settlement also requires SPI to conduct a human and ecological health assessment of dioxin in the Mad River Slough, and to create a plan to remediate any adverse environmental or human health effects of their contamination of the area. SPI also removed the sludge dumped in the dunes, and changed their stormwater runoff practices, including a filtration for solid materials.
Because of our intervention, one of the largest and most biologically important coastal estuaries in California – the Humboldt Bay – is one step closer to recovering from years of industrial abuses.