Cleanup at the highly contaminated Reynolds Aluminum site in Longview is years behind schedule. While other aluminum smelters along the Columbia were cleaned up and converted to new industrial operations, Alcoa—owner of the Reynolds site—hasn’t finished investigating the site to understand the extent of pollution or proposed a cleanup plan for the Longview site. To make matters worse, Millennium coal wants permission to build one of the nation's largest coal export terminals at the site.
Your input is prompting a change at the site. Last year, the public called on Ecology to end years of delay and finally take action to ensure that Millennium’s plans for a mega coal export terminal would not compromise cleanup and public health. Millennium plans to use Alcoa’s site to ship up to 60 million tons of coal to Asia, a dirty proposal that could further pollute the Alcoa site.
Ecology is listening. The agency is now accepting public comments on its new agreement, called an “Agreed Order,” with Alcoa (aka Northwest Alloys) to get cleanup back on track. Ecology needs to hear from you:
- Millennium has NO Experience Cleaning up a Hazardous Waste Site. Chinook Ventures—the company that leased the property before Millennium—promised to clean up the site and produce jobs. Instead, Chinook made matters worse by polluting the site further and covering up contamination it discovered. Like Chinook, Millennium is promising the moon for cleanup. In reality, Millennium is focused on coal exports and has no experience cleaning up hazardous waste sites, let alone one of the most contaminated sites on the Lower Columbia River. This calls for a new approach to agency oversight moving forward.
- Millennium’s Coal Export Plans Will Compromise Cleanup. Millennium wants to build the largest coal export terminal on the west coast—long before cleanup is complete. With groundwater already contaminated by cyanide and fluoride, Ecology cannot let Millennium’s short-sighted coal export plans compromise the long-term health of the community.
- Ecology Must Step Up Oversight and Not Let Polluters Off the Hook. In the past Ecology’s workload and decision not to prioritize this site led to major delays in the cleanup process. The new Agreed Order is a step in the right direction, but Ecology must do more to oversee an effective cleanup operation. Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill. Instead, Ecology can charge Alcoa to pay for a contractor to monitor sampling results, oversee cleanup operations, and review cleanup plans. This will ensure that the disaster caused by Chinook Ventures is not repeated by Millennium.
Submit Comments to Ecology by Feb. 9 at 5:00PM.
Send your comments via mail or email to:
Paul Skyllingstad
Department of Ecology, Industrial Section
P.O. Box 47600
Olympia, WA 98504-7600
Learn more on Ecology’s website
