The addition of Bradford Island to the Superfund list of contaminated areas might be meaningful. Or it might be an empty gesture on the part of the federal government that has little impact.
The difference will rest with this nation’s commitment to cleaning up toxic sites that threaten the environment and the health of the creatures that live in it.
Bradford Island is an uninhabited island in the Columbia River near Bonneville Dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam, for decades dumped toxic waste on the island and into a portion of the river. The corps used the island as a landfill, disposing of electrical equipment containing cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls — PCBs.
That waste contaminates fish caught and eaten by humans, and the Yakama Nation — along with officials from both Washington and Oregon — long has called on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to manage cleanup of the site. The EPA last week added Bradford Island to its Superfund list, designating cleanup as a priority and potentially freeing up federal funding for the project.
“This is a day filled with hope for communities along the Columbia River,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., added: “Music to my ears. Let’s get it done.”
Getting it done might be a problem. Across the nation, there are more than 40,000 Superfund sites, and 1,300 — the most contaminated — are on the National Priorities List. Bradford Island was one of 12 Superfund designations last week, and the Biden administration has said it will update the list twice a year.
Washington has 46 locations on the priority list, including the former Boomsnub Chrome & Grind and Airco Gases properties in Hazel Dell. In 2016, The Columbian reported that cleanup was nearly complete, but the National Priorities List now states, “Plans to remove the treatment plant and additional chromium-contaminated soil are underway and likely to be implemented in 2-3 years.”
For much of the 20th century, American industry gave little thought to long-term environmental damage, with toxic chemicals being allowed to sink into the soil and groundwater. Unlike Bradford Island, many of the sites are in residential areas.
The situation calls for diligent, lengthy and costly cleanup efforts. To that end, the Superfund program was established by an act of Congress in 1980, but funding has been an issue. According to an analysis by the EPA, about 70 percent of costs are paid by polluters, with the rest falling to taxpayers.
In 1995, Republicans in Congress eliminated a tax on petroleum and chemical industries that paid into a Superfund trust, and the trust is now dissipating. In November, Congress reauthorized an excise tax on chemical manufacturers to fund cleanups, but budget shortfalls for years have limited the amount of work that is done.
The Trump administration unsuccessfully sought to transfer much of the responsibility for cleanup to the states. But the scale of the projects indicates that the federal government must take the lead.
All of that leads to skepticism that the designation of Bradford Island as a Superfund site will have an impact.
It should. Officials in the past have said that fish caught near the island have the highest rate of PCBs in the Northwest, and health authorities have warned the public not to eat fish from the area.
But, as we have learned over the years, America is not very good up at cleaning up its messes.
