Boeing signs EPA orders to curb toxic wastes in NW streams, soil
Seattle, WA The Oregonian, spring 1995
Boeing Co. will step up work to reduce contamination threatening drinking
water wells fro Portland, and will make new efforts to limit the spread of hazardous
wastes toward Seattle's Duwamish River, the Envionmental Protection Agency says.
Boeing signed two EPA consent orders dealing with hazardous wastes in soil
and ground water at its parts manufacturing plant in portland and its plant
No. 2 in Seattle. The contamination is the result of past waste handling and
disposal practices that have been discontinued at Boeing, the EPA said.
The agency said that chemical degreasers and solvents have reached the ground
water at the Portland plant and are moving toward a well field used as a back-up
water supply for about 750,000 people in the Portland area.
Similar chemicals have been found in soil and ground water at the Seattle
plant, along with heavy metals that are commonly part ofelectroplating wastes.
Because the ground water flow is toward the duwamish, there is concern about
the possible effects on fish and wildlife, and consequent effects on people
who might eat the fish, the EPA said.
EPA officials said the consent orders call for a variety of corrective actions
but also specify that more investigative work is needed before determining the
best ways to remove the contamination. Boeing has been pumping and treating
some of the contaminated ground water in Portland, and has begun work to minimize
the movement of contaminants at the Seattle plant, they said.