Draft HMRC Minutes, January 2003.

The HMRC met 1/10/03 at the library.

Present were May Gerstle, Shaheeda Pierce, Nan Hammett, Sharon Morris, Blake

Trask, Rita Schenck, Jasper Koster, Steve Macdonald, Mary Ellen Walker, and Dan Schueler of the Vashon Community, Marian Abbett of Wa DOE, Bonnie Meyer of Public Health Seattle-King County, and John Kissel, UW.

The minutes were accepted with corrections.

The agenda was accepted

There was a discussion of an honorarium for Paul Stamets for the upcoming symposium. He is available April 28th. It was finally decided that Shaheeda would offer $500, and if that was not enough would come back to the committee. Shaheeda is organizing the conference, with a focus on bioremediation. We will have as yet unspecified speakers besides Paul.

Rita gave preliminary results as to the phytoremediation study. Paired samples of plants and the soils they grew in were sampled. The soils results were in generally good agreement with other data from the island. 61 species of plants were sampled, in duplicate. None of them were bioconcentrators of arsenic or lead, but 10 species bioconcentrated cadmium. The levels of cadmium were at or above the levels observed in contaminated areas elsewhere, and were at levels known to cause mortality of wildlife. Foxglove reached levels of 25 ppm, and could potentially be used as a phytoremediation species, as could tansy. More work needs to be done on this topic, both further research and a plan to inform the community. The community knows little about cadmium, and we need to develop materials on this topic. Rita will come back to the committee with suggestions moving forward.

John Kissel gave a report on the results of an arsenic and lead study done on selected farmers on the island. There were 9 farms: 15 adults and 8 children (ages 1-11) were sampled. Tilled soil, yard soil and house dust were all sampled. The lead in house dust was well below any level of concern, although it did appear that there are some non-soil sources of lead in the house dust, making it higher in lead than the soils. Soil arsenic was higher in tilled soils than in yard soil.

Urine arsenic was also sampled and total and inorganic (termed speciated) arsenic reported. Soil and urine samples were taken quarterly for a year. Potato and lettuce samples were also taken, both from the island and from four stores on the mainland. The potatoes underwent three treatments: rinsing, scrubbing and peeling. There was no significant trend in the potato results. Arsenic was elevated in the lettuce grown on island although it still was only 0.2 ppm and probably not a health hazard.

The aggregated urine samples showed no seasonal trend. The inorganic arsenic levels in urine were high relative to samples taken in Utah and other locations.

We discussed the potential for education for the medical community on island. Sharon is working with May to get Continuing Education Units (CEU's), but the process is will take 3-4 months.

Steve reported on Kleinfelter, IRPPC's contractor. They are not happy with this contractor and will likely not be using them any further. Their contract has lapsed, and IRPPC is seeking a replacement.

IRPPC has submitted a new proposal to the DOE, but expects no action until after March.

Bonnie described some of the work Public Health is doing. They are holding a day-long environmental health workshop for child care providers on February 1st at Highline Community College. Both general information and specific info on contaminated soils will be presented. They are doing a community survey evaluating the effect of their education efforts. Public Health has a nice poster reminding people to remove their shoes-- she passed out some at the meeting and Mary Ellen Walker will distribute them to garden shops on island. Public Health also has a gardening brochure that we can use at our next symposium. Bonnie promised to bring it next time.

Marian described DOE's efforts in King and Pierce County. They are sampling about 100 child use areas in each county. Marian also described the plume delineation work they have done in Pierce County. The work will be released next week. Rita asked for the data base, and Marion asked that she submit a formal legal request for the data.

DOE is evaluating the potential to use XRF (X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy) for onsite measurement of metals in soils. If it works out, they envision testing vans in Pierce and King county providing onsite support to the communities.

There is an area-wide committee meeting 16 January in Ellensburg. Dan Schueler plans to attend.

Shaheeda requested that Ecology review its interim action level, to make it clear that level is not a "safe" level but only a level at which immediate action is warranted.

Our next meeting is at three Friday February 7th. Shaheeda will lead this meeting and the one in March.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Rita Schenck