11 March 2003
Minutes
The meeting was convened at the Vashon Chamber office. Present were: Board President James English, Secretary Steven Macdonald, and Treasurer Nan Hammett. Director Macdonald chaired the meeting. The agenda is attached as the last page of these minutes.
Review and adoption of minutes from prior meeting (1/11/03)
The minutes were adopted.
Treasurer's report
Treasurer Hammett presented an itemized report dated 3/11/2003, showing expenditures to date of $15,898.20. Because of late disbursement from Ecology, no bills were paid in the period following the last Board meeting.
The Board reviewed and approved the draft Work Progress Report, covering the period 2/1/03 to 2/28/03.
Technical consulting services
Contractor progress and continuation were discussed separately for each contractor.
IERE. The Board continues to be satisfied with the progress made by IERE on the three contracted tasks: R5 (technical consulting on environmental labs), R6* (technical consulting on sources of soil, soil amendments), and D1 (webpage).
Kleinfelder. The Board continues to be dissatisfied with the progress made by Kleinfelder on the six contracted tasks: R1-R4 (independent scientific-technical review of documents), D4 (framework for surveys), and D7 (focus sheets, event surveys). Because they have never done any work on D4, that task is no longer under consideration. In mid-February, following review of their flawed summary of the November symposium evaluation data (see below), they were asked to stop work on that task.
At this meeting, the Board reviewed the 2/19 draft "Assessment of Ecology's Interim Action Level Methodology", and found errors and omissions, such as the improper citation of the Lustberg-Silbergeld study (which focused on adult exposures in the range of 20 ug/dL, but was used as a reference to statements about child exposures less than 10 ug/dL), omission of the NRC studies from the reference list, and no reference to the easily-available August 2001 Ecology Q&A (pub. no. 01-09-038 <http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0109038.pdf>). The Board concluded that it had lost all confidence that the firm can or will produce an acceptable work product, and decided to ask Kleinfelder to stop work on this task. Secretary Macdonald will communicate this to the consultant.
The Board also reviewed the 3/4 draft "Review of Vashon-Maury Island Child-Use Areas Study", found errors and omissions. For examples: the title of the Ecy report implies that the focus is on evaluation of soil at child-use areas on Vashon, but Kleinfelder reported that the primary objective was otherwise, and then failed to comment on that glaring inconsistency; Kleinfelder's comments on the technical issues of values in the non-detectible range and the PQL were confused at best and frankly wrong at worst; Kleinfelder failed to discuss how the values found in soils at the child-use areas on Vashon relate to the interim action trigger levels, which is a particularly grievous omission in the context of Kleinfelder having just completed review of the Ecy document on that subject (Kleinfelder must have known that Ecy justified the development of the interim action trigger levels "for arsenic and lead at child-use areas within the Tacoma Smelter Plume site"); and, Kleinfelder made no reference to various easily-available related Ecy publications (01-09-008 <http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0109008.pdf>, 01-09-036 <http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0109036.pdf>, 01-09-039 <http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0109039.pdf>, and the Dockton follow-up <http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/tacoma_smelter/Dockton_Park.htm>). The Board concluded that it lacks confidence that the firm can or will product an acceptable work product, and decided to ask Kleinfelder to stop work on this task. Secretary Macdonald will communicate this to the consultant.
The Kleinfelder contract with IRPPC expired 30 September 2002. Prior to that date, and repeatedly since that time, the Board asked for contract extension language. Kleinfelder sent a document entitled "2003 amendment.pdf" on 19 February, and this was reviewed at the Board meeting. It was found to contain errors: there is a $2,000 compensation clause which should be struck, because this was a no-cost extension; the effective start date should be 10/1/2002, not 1/1/2003; the footnote reads "Page X of 4", but the document is three pages in length. The Board decided to forward the document to our Ecology project officer, expressing a willingness to sign this extension (if the errors are corrected), but no desire re asking Kleinfelder for any amendment beyond the date where this extension ends (31 March 2003). Secretary Macdonald will communicate this to the consultant.
Earthworks. The Board reviewed a draft of the article "Phytoremediation on Vashon-Maury Islands?" We hope to see a version to submit for newspaper publication, and a longer version for the IERE website. The Board discussed the process for approval, which must include Dr Schenck, VMICC-HMRC, and Ecology. We would like to see the article "hook" modified into addressing the usual "What can I do?" question which readers can be expected to have. The article will need to acknowledge the financial support given by VMICC for the study. Secretary Macdonald will communicate this to the consultant.
The Board discussed the draft contract amendment ("Change Notice 1") sent by Earthworks Environmental Inc, which covers one additional task: D7 (focus sheets, event surveys). It was approved by the Board, and will be sent to our Ecology project officer for administrative review and approval. Secretary Macdonald will communicate this to the consultant.
VMICC HMRC meeting 3/7/03
The minutes of the HMRC meeting were reviewed.
The details of the symposium "Improving our soil", currently scheduled for 26 April 2003, were reviewed, including the budget proposed by the VMICC-HMRC chair. The conflict between the symposium and the Saturday morning VIGA Farmers Market was noted. The Board decided on two principles: first, private sector vendors should be allowed and encouraged to sell product at the symposium if (and only if) the product has a purpose congruent with the symposium theme; and second, speakers should be instructed that the opportunity to address the community should be used to educate the community about the areas in which the speaker has expertise, and not be used to promote products for sale. The Board is also interested in seeing a high-quality video recording be made of the symposium. IRPPC plans to ask Earthworks to design and conduct the post-event survey.
The post-event survey from the November symposium was briefly discussed. The Board supported the modifications made by Secretary Macdonald to correct the flawed Kleinfelder report on those data. Secretary Macdonald explained the rationale in a 2/18 message to Kleinfelder in this fashion: "The analysis which you conducted was flawed. Here's the technical reason (which you could find in any elementary statistical textbook): when you use the count of responses as the unit of analysis, you bias the results by giving greater weight to respondents who made multiple selections and lesser weight to respondents who chose fewer response options; the proper analysis uses respondents as the unit of analysis. And, here's the common sense reason: what we care about is what people think, not how often a specific box was checked. For example, it is meaningful to say that 74% (51 of 69) respondents were concerned about soil contamination in the garden; it is less meaningful to say that 45% (51 of 112) responses were for this subject." President English reported that John Lillie had given the 69 survey forms to him.
Dr Schenck is planning to discuss the Kissel-Weppner study during her talk at the symposium, which will be a good opportunity to inform the community about its results. However, the main focus of her talk is expected to be on the school phytoremediation study, which is more congruent with the theme of the symposium. The Board would like to see that VMICC-HMRC craft a clear message for the media on the Kissel-Weppner study, in order to avoid confusion. Secretary Macdonald will communicate this to VMICC-HMRC chair May Gerstle. The Board discussed the idea of having a non-technical summary of the study written by our consultant Earthworks. Secretary Macdonald will communicate this to the consultant.
Ecology PPG 03-05 grant
The board discussed various communications from the Ecy project officer. The budget is expected to be $30,000 for the full July 2003 to June 2005 biennium, necessitating a 75% reduction in the IRPPC budget from the request submitted with our PPG proposal. Secretary Macdonald modified the spreadsheet used in planning the PPG proposal to reflect an across-the-board reduction. Ecology will use our proposal and this spreadsheet as the basis for the first draft of the PPG agreement.
11 March 2003
Agenda
Related documents
1. Announcements
2. Review and adoption of minutes from prior meeting (2/11/2003)
IRPPC Board Mtg 2003-02-11 Minutes.rtf
3. Treasurer's report
IRPPC-1feb03.pdf [IERE invoice]
4. Technical consulting services: Contractor progress, continuation
Kleinfelder (R1, R2, R3, R4,
D4,D7) - contract amendment2/19 draft "Assessment of Ecology's Interim Action Level Methodology"
3/4 draft "Review of Vashon-Maury Island Child-Use Areas Study"
2003 amendment.pdf
memo2IRPPC_011210_rev1.DOC; Dwyer 2/24 email message
Child-use area review.doc
IERE (R5, R6*, D1)
School phyto. project report for website
HeavyMetal-LogFiles-Feb2003.pdf
Vashon Island Phytoremediation Study Draft Review.doc
Earthworks (R1-4, D3, D4) - D7 change order amendment
3/7 draft articles on school phyto. project
EXHIBIT A No1.doc;
Lester 2/24 email message
Phytoremediation on Vashon 1st news art.doc phytoremediation 2nd news art.doc
5. VMICC HMRC meeting 3/7/03
11/18/03 "Get the scoop on our dirt"
Symposium_Survey_Results-edited.doc
4/26/03 10am-1pm "Improving our soil"
Gerstle 2/24 email message
Kissel-Weppner study
UWVIGA_for_release_21703.doc
meeting 4/4 - draft "IRPPC Update"?
6. Ecology PPG 03-05 grant
3/7 communication from Kathy Seel, Ecy
PPGbudget 03-05revised.xls
7. Board membership and composition
Next meetings
7:15pm, second Tuesday evening of each month: 8 April, 13 May, 10 June. Location: Vashon Chamber of Commerce office, 17232 Vashon Highway.