Shelton: Gateway to Dioxin, Industrial Blight, Pork

Shelton, WA — In the midst of a smear campaign launched against one of the best friends the community has had in an elected official (Jack Miles) for years, it has come to light the robber barons in Mason County have far more to answer for than 20 year old traffic tickets and barking dogs. For anybody who reads the articles posted here discussing the high levels of pollution and lung disease in our community, it is well known Oakland Bay and Shelton Harbor are egregious hotbeds of Dioxin contamination exceeding 902 ppt in some samples as the proximity to Simpson’s downtown operations increased.

Before Gordon Lance, a qualified expert engineer at ORCAA was contacted, the following alarming information was gleaned from a report by Tom Callis of the Daily Peninsula News:

Port Angeles Dioxin level high, just “Don’t Eat The Dirt”, says Dr. Tom Locke, after study by Ecology Department

PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles, with its long history of mills, appears to have a higher level of dioxin in its soil than most communities, according to the state Department of Ecology. 

Yet, residents should not worry, said Dr. Tom Locke, health officer for Clallam and Jefferson counties. 

“As long as people don’t eat the dirt, the dirt is not dangerous to them,” he said.

A recently released study by Ecology traced the sources of dioxin, a carcinogen, in 85 samples taken in Port Angeles in fall 2008. The purpose was to determine how much of the contaminate may be the responsibility of Rayonier Inc. 

Ecology is requiring Rayonier to clean up its former Port Angeles mill site. 

The study traced the chemical to several sources, including chimneys, pesticides and hog fuel boilers used by mills, including Rayonier. 

Forty of the 85 samples exceeded the cleanup level of 11 parts per trillion, an amount higher than levels found in other cities where similar studies have been done, said Connie Groven, environmental engineer with Ecology. 

The dioxin produced by hog fuel boilers turned out to be a large contributor to those levels. Once taken away, the samples exceeding the cleanup level drop to 12 and resemble results found in other studies, Groven said. 

Yet though these numbers (12ppt vs. 902ppt) are fly specks compared to the mountain of Dioxin contamination in/around Simpson’s Shelton operations, NO CLEANUP IS PLANNED for Shelton harbor and vicinity according to Washington’s Dept. of Ecology at a local information meeting held several months ago in a bald attempt to greenwash the shellfish being grown for consumption in this most toxic of filth…due primarily to the deliberate acts of a dirty filthy anachronism (i.e. Simpson) over the decades. Moving over and ‘LETTING THE BIG DOG EAT’ to gain record profits was purchased at enormous cost to taxpayers, the community’s health, our children, and the environment. The ROBBER BARONS of Mason County engaged in shocking/criminal indifference to the welfare of the community, delineated as follows:

(“Natural Resources?…in Washington State? Are you kidding? There’s plenty of resources in Washington State…if we could just get our hands on them!” -Jay Hupp- circa 2005/2006)

(“There was a problem in Mason County due to the height restrictions ordinances prohibiting the kinds of BioMass incinerators in Pacific County. So I got together with Tim [Sheldon] and we changed all that.” -Jay Hupp- at a gathering of fellow Robber Barons circa 2005/2006)

ORCAA’s Gordon Lance revealed, according to 2 Government reports, the *source* of the mountain of Dioxin contamination in Shelton Harbor and at least 2 local landfills–Simpson!  How?  Simpson flushed the Dioxin contaminated ash from the bag house of their hog fuel boiler into Shelton’s sewers and on to the sewage treatment plant (STP). This all ended up in Oakland Bay and Shelton Harbor except for what the company trucked to 2 local landfills in the County (one near Matlock) hardly designed to contain or dispose of such a potently deadly poison.

Has anything been done to hold this filthy company responsible for it’s crime against the community and environment?  Imagine what kind of criminal charges would be brought against an ordinary citizen dumping something comparably more innocuous, gasoline for instance, into the city’s sewer system? It’s not like the Robber Barons didn’t KNOW Dioxin was highly poisonous. But it was conveniently profitable to callously dump this deadly filth into the community given no penalties or adequate enforcement of public health & safety was ever imposed on the Big Dog.

WA Dept of Ecology report of where Simpson disposed of/buried the bodies

Simpson’s Weapons of Mass Destruction–National Study/Analysis

National Report: The Enemy within, its Allies, and how it kills 

Although Dr. Tom Locke (ibid) would have you believe Dioxin is harmless because it’s in the dirt and we don’t eat dirt, he ignores the fact Dioxin is bio-accumulative (concentrates as it goes up the food chain), and people DO ‘eat’/breathe dirt (dust) constantly–from thumb sucking toddlers to vegetarians. In fact, today’s humans have an average of 50x times more dioxin contamination in our bodies than our ancestors…more in a mother’s breast milk than would be allowed by law in dairy cattle milk for sale!  This smacks of arguing the cadmium in certain batteries is harmless unless you eat batteries. But we’ve known since the days of the Romans persistent poisons such as lead (etc.) can harm us even if we don’t eat aqueducts. Substances like lead, mercury, furans, dioxins, cadmium, mercury, et al are especially dangerous. That’s why we have specially designated dumps designed to handle such disproportionately dangerous poisons. It’s a bit like saying an unsecured loaded firearm won’t harm your toddler if he/she doesn’t eat it. Dr. Tom Locke’s lack of critical reasoning demonstrates he can’t be trusted with the responsibility of a public health officer and protecting the public from diseases resulting from exposure to toxins released into the environment.

Pork Commissioner Jay Hupp lusting after natural resources:

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Opposed to politicians who equivocate about air quality & BioMassacre
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