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Seattle Company Used Secret Drain to Dump Toxic Waste Directly Into Sewer System
Seattle Company Used Secret Drain to Dump Toxic Waste Directly Into Sewer System
The two men responsible allegedly lied to regulators about their operation since 2009.
(TMU) — According to a 36-count grand jury indictment, a Seattle company used a hidden drain to dump a highly-corrosive chemical solution directly into the sewer system.
The King County sewer system eventually reaches the Duwamish Waterway and the Puget Sound.
After “a sensitive sewer flow meter tipped them off to something strange,”agents sent a robot into the sewer to investigate, the Seattle Times reports.
Inside the sewer, the robot’s camera recorded a white stain of unknown origin and, according to a federal indictment handed down earlier this month, federal agents executed a search warrant after real-time monitoring equipment they installed indicated an unusual spike in the water’s pH.
During the search, a portable pump covered in a high-pH liquid and a hidden drain that had never been disclosed were both discovered.
It turns out, both the company’s owner and the manager of the plant, who happen to be cousins, have been lying to regulators since at least 2009, according to the indictment. The scheme was discovered in 2018.
The Seattle Barrel and Cooperage Company collects used 55-gallon industrial drums and resells them after undergoing a reconditioning process that involves washing them in a tank full of highly-corrosive chemical solution. The family-owned company is legally obligated to dispose of the caustic solution properly.
Louie Sanft and John Sanft have both charged with criminal conspiracy as well as 29 counts of violating the Clean Water Act—one for each of the 29 times that investigators documented the waste being discharged into the sewer system in 2018 and 2019—and are expected to appear in court next month.
The century-old company is laying the blame on a former employee whose employment was terminated earlier this year, according to Seattle Barrel’s lawyer, Harold Malkin. That employee hasn’t been named or charged.
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‘Spill’: A New Exhibit Examines Humanity’s Abuse of Water
‘Spill’: A New Exhibit Examines Humanity’s Abuse of Water
Toxic messes turn into blazing — and angry — works of art at Vancouver’s Belkin Gallery.
Oil slicks, toxic tailing ponds, poisoned aquifers, drowned landscapes and sludgy brown crude vomited up from the bottom of the sea. To say that humans have abused water is like saying the Titanic was a boating mishap.
The scale of this misuse is made as clear as a pellucid pool at the UBC Belkin Art Gallery’s new exhibition, Spill.
If you think that sounds incredibly depressing, you’re not wrong. But there’s another element at work — the blazing fire of anger and activism.
As Belkin curator Lorna Brown explains, the idea for the exhibition originated from a diesel spill in Vancouver’s English Bay in 2015. The incident reminded her of Melancholy Bay, the former title of Vancouver Harbour, given by Captain George Vancouver when he first landed here in 1792.
But melancholy doesn’t do justice to many of the situations documented in the show. Fury might be a better descriptor for the feeling sparked by this catalogue of human error, bad behaviour and insane decision-making presented in image, sound and installation, supported by exhaustive research.
Brown explains that although the artists featured in Spill — Carolina Caycedo, Nelly César, Guadalupe Martinez, Teresa Montoya, Anne Riley, Genevieve Robertson, Susan Schuppli and T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss — worked in different parts of the world, they were united by the common element of water. They also shared an activist approach and deep reservoirs of anger.
None are quite as furious as Susan Schuppli, whose large-scale installation Nature Represents Itself takes on the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
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Over 3,000 tons of unregistered radioactive waste stored in Japan – report
Over 3,000 tons of unregistered radioactive waste stored in Japan – report
At least 3,100 tons of toxic waste lacking proper registration is being stored in Japan, local media report. Heaps of radioactive waste have been produced in the cleanup of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but local officials are reluctant to report it.
Tons of contaminated soil as well as other radioactive garbage are being stored at temporary depots across the country, Japanese NHK TV-Channel reports.
The level of radiation at the storage sites is higher than 8,000 Becquerels per kilogram, while the norm is 10 Becquerels per kilogram.
NHK gathered the data by questioning local administrations of the Ibaraki, Iwate, Miyagi, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo and Fukushima prefectures. The largest quantity of nuclear waste is said to be stored in the city of Kurihara in the Miyagi prefecture.
According to Japanese law, local authorities must report to the government about the nuclear materials stored in their prefectures.
They have not done so for five years, however, for the fear of negative publicity. Should the toxic waste be officially registered, local authorities will be told to build permanent storage facilities, which they fear may affect the attractiveness of their regions to investors.
The meltdown of the reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant was triggered by a disastrous earthquake followed by a huge tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011. It was biggest nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl tragedy and forced 160,000 people to flee their homes.
The Trouble With Tailings: Toxic Waste ‘Time Bombs’ Loom Large Over Alaska’s Salmon Rivers
There are a few unarguable truths about mine tailings, the pulverized rock, water and sludge left over from mineral extraction — mining is a messy business, the leftovers have to be dealt with forever and it’s impossible to guarantee against another tailings dam failure such as the Mount Polley catastrophe.
In B.C., there are 98 tailings storage facilities at 60 metal and coal mines, of which 31 are operating or under construction and the remaining 67 are at mines that are either permanently or temporarily closed
That means communities throughout B.C. and Alaska are looking nervously at nearby tailings ponds, which sometimes more closely resemble lakes, stretching over several square kilometres, with the toxic waste held back by earth and rock-filled dams. The water is usually recycled through the plant when the mine is operating, but, after the mine closes, water, toxins and finely ground rock must continue to be contained or treated.
It’s the realization that tailings have to be treated in perpetuity that worries many of those living downstream, especially as the Mount Polley breach happened only 17 years after the dam was constructed.
“The concept of forever boggles people minds. In one thousand years is the bank account still going to be there? These people are going to be dead,” said Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders.
“There are time-bombs up there without a plan to deal with them. Are they going to be able to build a mine that’s going to keep its integrity forever?”
It raises the question of whether there should be any mining in an area that is vital to five species of salmon and sustains the livelihoods of so many Alaskans, said Heather Hardcastle, a Juneau fisherman and coordinator of Salmon Beyond Borders.
“This is why this region of the world is so globally significant and why we care so much,” said Hardcastle, who is among those pushing for the issue to be referred to theInternational Joint Commission.
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Toxic Fallout Continues as Colorado Mine Spill Declared Three Times Larger Than Stated
Toxic Fallout Continues as Colorado Mine Spill Declared Three Times Larger Than Stated
Communities declare states of emergency over toxic wastewater flowing through Colorado and New Mexico, heading for Utah
A warning sign is displayed along the Animas River as it flows through Farmington, New Mexico on August 8, 2015. (Photo: Alexa Rogals/The Daily Times via AP)
The spill which sent toxic waste from an abandoned mine into a Colorado waterway last week released three million gallons of contaminates into the state’s 126-mile Animas River—not one million, as previously announced, according to new estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
As the orange-hued sludge kept flowing through Colorado and into the San Juan River in New Mexico on Monday, the fallout from the massive accident continued to spread, with communities declaring states of emergency and the Navajo Nation vowing to take action against the EPA, which caused the spill.
The county of La Plata and the city of Durango, both in Colorado, each declared a state of emergency at noon on Sunday.
La Plata County manager Joe Kerby said in a statement: “This action has been taken due to the serious nature of the incident and to convey the grave concerns that local elected officials have to ensure that all appropriate levels of state and federal resources are brought to bear to assist our community not only in actively managing this tragic incident but also to recover from it.”
Water quality tests along the rivers were still being conducted as of Monday afternoon. According to preliminary data released by the EPA on Sunday, arsenic levels in the Durango area were, at their peak, 300 times higher than normal. Lead was 3,500 times higher than normal. The waste also includes copper, zinc, aluminum, and cadmium.
Meanwhile, the mine continues to discharge at 500 gallons per minute. Although the EPA maintains that the waste is unlikely to have harmed wildlife in the area, local officials in affected areas have advised residents not to use the river for agricultural or recreational purposes or to allow their pets to drink the water.
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