Encapsulated area shouldn’t be a park | Letters | Jan. 30

Published 4:00 pm Friday, January 30, 2009

With millions of contaminated sites, spread across every nation and city on earth, humanity is facing an acute environmental challenge.

Every one of the world’s 6.2 billion people is exposed to contamination from past industrial practices, in the soil and water where they live or the air they breathe, even in the most remote regions.

The risk to human and environmental health is rising and there is evidence this cocktail of pollutants is a contributor to the global epidemic of cancers, lung and other degenerative diseases.

With those sobering facts in mind, why is it that, after the expenditure of $152 million to “clean up” the Wyckoff site we are left with an encapsulated plume of naphthalene? Making a park out of it makes about as much sense as water skiing on the Love Canal.

When, not if, a major “seismic” event occurs, that very expensive high-tech containment may rupture and broadcast this devil’s brew into the marine environment. The end result will make the Dead Sea look like an environmental success.

The EPA is content to contain this and leave it to future generations to deal with while exposing island residents to a continued hazard. Ignoring alternative innovative solutions in favor of high-priced mechanical containment is akin to doing nothing. This mess could have and should have been “cleaned up” so that it would no longer be a threat to future generations.

If Bainbridge makes this a park then the state could offer Hanford as the site for the next Disneyland.

Frederick J. Scheffler

Eagle Harbor Lane