How did Baykeeper pull this off?
Humboldt Bay 'impaired' by dioxin
10/28/2006
The State Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday voted unanimously to list Humboldt Bay as impaired for dioxin contamination under the federal Clean Water Act.
Dioxin is a known carcinogen with a wide range of health effects including cancer, reproductive and developmental effects that can occur even at low levels of exposure, according to a news release by Humboldt Baykeeper, the area’s two-year-old environmental watchdog group.
Wednesday’s action was taken by the Water Board at the request of Humboldt Baykeeper, which submitted a petition and testing information earlier this year urging the board to recognize the dioxin problem in the bay.
The information included sampling data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District, the city of Eureka and Sierra Pacific Industries, the release stated.
“The action taken by the state Water Board confirms that there is a systemic problem with dioxin contamination around Humboldt Bay,” said Humboldt Baykeeper Director Pete Nichols. “It’s now important that we focus on identifying the sources of this contamination, stop the flow of dioxin to the bay, and work hard on getting removed from this list.”
Dioxin, a byproduct of a wood preservative widely used by the timber industry called pentachlorophenol or “penta,” is known to accumulate in the fatty tissue of fish and shellfish, according to the news release.
Copyright (C) 2005, The Eureka Reporter. All rights reserved.
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