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Toxic dirt Port sold was used on levee Water board investigating

Published in the Stockton Record on 07/18/04

Toxic dirt port sold was used on levee Water board investigating
By Audrey Cooper
Record Staff Writer
Published Sunday, July 18, 2004

HOLT -- The Port of Stockton used the disastrous levee break on Jones Tract to sell toxic dirt to a state agency, which unknowingly dumped the dirt along the banks of a Delta waterway.

The sale of the polluted dirt also was likely conducted in violation of permits that outline how the port is allowed to dispose of the sediment dredged from the Stockton Deep Water Channel.

Port officials insist they did nothing wrong by selling the dirt to the state Department of Water Resources shortly after the June 3 levee break that flooded Jones Tract, a 12,000-acre Delta island.

Indeed, shortly after the dirt sale was finalized, port officials issued public announcements that heralded their role in the flooding emergency. The port's tainted soil was used to strengthen the Trapper Slough levee that protects Highway 4. A port spokesman said the soil is not seriously polluted, although state documents indicate otherwise.

When state pollution regulators started asking questions about the dirt sale, the port didn't immediately respond to written requests for information. Instead, port officials wrote to several state legislators, who last week wrote letters and placed phone calls to ask for leniency on the port's behalf.

The dirt sale also may have made it easier for port officials to find a place to dispose of dirt dredged up in the future. The port plans to dredge another part of the channel within months as part of a controversial expansion project.

"The port has plenty of clean dirt it could have sold. Instead, it used the cover of an emergency to illegally dispose of toxic waste. It's incredible," said Bill Jennings, head of the Stockton-based environmental group Deltakeeper.

The port made about $20,000 by selling the state an estimated 55,000 cubic yards of soil.

Emergency workers used the dirt to raise a 2 1/2-mile stretch of the Trapper Slough levee, which kept high tides and waves from washing out Highway 4.

The soil was collected from a site on Roberts Island, where the port stored mud dredged from the Deep Water Channel. Documents from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board show that the soil stored on Roberts Island is polluted with heavy metals such as copper, zinc, barium and lead. Many of those metals likely came from mining operations in the Sierra and ship-maintenance work.

Tests done as recently as May also show that the dredged soil is acidic. Acidic soils can cause chemical reactions that force metals to easily leak out of the dirt.

The more acidic soil becomes, the more likely the metals are to leach into water, said Alex Baillie, an environmental specialist with the regional water board.

That's why Baillie and other regulators force the port to regularly test soil conditions and groundwater levels at the Roberts Island storage site.

Dumping the polluted soil along Trapper Slough is particularly worrisome, because the metals might easily wash into the slough and kill invertebrates and juvenile fish, Baillie said.

Copper levels in the port's polluted soil could be more than 115 times higher than what is considered safe for aquatic wildlife, water board documents show.

The port is allowed to sell or move the toxic dirt from Roberts Island only after receiving permission from the water board, according to the port's permits.

Yet the port never asked for permission to sell the dirt, said Baillie, who stopped short of saying that the port acted illegally.

"I'm still trying to evaluate the situation and gather information," he said.

Baillie found out about the dirt sale after reading about it in The Record. He sent the port a letter on June 29 asking for more information. In that letter, Baillie asked port officials for the most recent soil and groundwater tests at Roberts Island. The port does those tests each month by sending consultants to peer at four groundwater wells and collect small dirt samples. The lab tests usually take about a day.

Also in his June 29 letter, Baillie asked for more information on the dirt sale, including where and how the tainted dirt was used.

The port was asked to respond with that information by July 12.

Nearly a week after receiving Baillie's letter, Deputy Port Director Mark Tollini wrote to several state legislators. He asked them to help get the information request rescinded.

"This kind of scrutiny and accompanying deadline by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board is absurd," Tollini wrote.

"With requests like these, the port may find it impossible and prohibitive to aid in relief efforts for future emergencies," the letter read.

On the July 12 deadline, the water board received a letter signed by four Assembly members that represent San Joaquin County -- Barbara Matthews, D-Tracy; Guy Houston, R-Livermore; Alan Nakanishi, D-Lodi; and Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton.

The legislators wrote that port officials should be commended for selling the dirt: "(W)e would not want the unreasonable demands from one state agency to deter their participation in future relief efforts."

On Tuesday, the port was told it could turn in the information by Aug. 15.

The legislators said they were appalled when port officials told them the water board was punishing them for selling the dirt. The dirt was sold at just 37 cents per cubic yard -- less the typical market rate for clean soil.

"I personally wanted to ask if the water board staff members were crazy. That was my first thought," Assemblywoman Matthews said.

"We had a really serious disaster when the levee broke. The port bailed us out and kept Highway 4 from washing away. When I heard what the regional board wanted, I had to wonder if they were in la-la land," she said.

Most confounding, Matthews said, was learning that the natural Trapper Slough levee soils were more acidic than the soil that came from the port.

That could mean that the port's soil was actually better than what had previously existed along the levee.

Not quite, scientists say.

G. Fred Lee has studied dredge sediment for decades. The Ph.D. chemist and environmental engineer has done more than $1 million worth of studies on similar dredge soil.

He said the state's pollution cops have good reason to be concerned about the port's dirt sale.

Over time, the tainted dirt likely will become even more acidic, making it easier for toxic levels of metals to leak into the slough, Lee said.

"Right now, there may be no releases of metals. But over time, there will almost certainly be significant releases of metals," he said.

Port officials adamantly deny that there might be any problems with the soil or that pollution regulators should have been told about the dirt sale.

Jeff Kaspar is the port's deputy director of properties and environmental issues.

"First, we were in a declared emergency situation. This soil meant the difference between saving Highway 4 or letting it wash away. A lot of things happened differently than if it hadn't been an emergency situation," he said.

"We were responding in the emergency to save lives and property," he said.

Kaspar said the port does not need permission to sell the dirt stored on Roberts Island. In fact, the port regularly sells that dirt for construction projects around San Joaquin County, Kaspar said.

The dirt also has been used in the past to shore up other levees around the Delta, he said.

Kaspar also said that the soil is regularly monitored, and he disputed regulators' claims that the dirt is highly toxic.

"There are some metals there, but nothing significant," he said.

Scientists at the state Department of Water Resources, the agency that bought the dirt, aren't taking any chances.

They didn't know that the dirt could be polluted when a Record reporter called to ask about it. One day later, the agency sent crews to collect soil samples from the Trapper Slough levee.

Results of those tests are expected early this week.

Port staff members did not tell the agency that soil might be toxic, Water Resources spokesman Ted Thomas said.

Rick Soehren, an assistant to the director of the state water department, said his agency has been testing water around Jones Tract since the levee break. So far, no problems have shown up, but until recently, the water monitoring was being done far from the Trapper Slough levee, he said.

Another water department official, Sonny Fong, said the agency decided to buy soil from the port because it was close and convenient. The agency also had considered buying dirt from a company near Byron, but it decided not to buy dirt there, said Fong, the agency's manager of emergency preparedness and security.

"We were trying to move quickly to save lives and infrastructure, and Byron was far away," Fong said.

The port may have had other motivations for selling the dirt.

The shipping agency is pushing forward with plans to complete a $25 million expansion of operations on Rough and Ready Island. The island, a former naval base, was turned over to the port in 2000.

Last month, port commissioners approved the expansion plans, which include dredging a mile-long stretch of waterway around the island.

The first phase of the dredging project is expected to remove 326,000 cubic yards of mud from the channel bottom, according to environmental reports from the port.

Those same reports indicate that the primary Roberts Island storage site only has enough room for another 270,000 cubic yards of mud. That means the port has to find somewhere else to put about 56,000 cubic yards of sediment -- almost exactly the same amount of soil that was sold to the state.

Furthermore, the port's own environmental reviews point out that reusing the dredged soil in the Delta could make extra space at the Roberts Island storage site.

"It is reasonable to anticipate that (some dirt) will have been removed for reuse and that the capacity of the site will be sufficient to accommodate additional dredging ... sometime in the future," the review states.

"It looks like the port was able to make room for some of this future sediment that otherwise it wouldn't have had room for," said Jenny Harbine, an attorney who has been fighting the port's expansion plans on behalf of several Stockton residents.

Kaspar, the port deputy director, said its ridiculous to think the port sold the dirt to make room for more dredge spoils. The port has plenty of room for any dirt dredged from the waterway near Rough and Ready Island, he said.

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* To reach reporter Audrey Cooper, phone (209) 546-8298 or e-mail acooper@recordnet.com

The effects of pollutants found in dirt sold by the Port of Stockton:

* Low pH: Indicates acidic soil. It also can increase the toxicity of heavy metals.

* Copper: The metal is healthy in trace amounts but can kill invertebrates and even young fish if found in high enough doses. It does not break down in the environment.

* Lead: If ingested by humans, lead can cause several health problems, including low intelligence in children. In the ecosystem, lead can harm animals. It can cause death, problems with hormone production, affect feeding behavior and cause other problems.

* Zinc: Another metal that in trace amounts can be beneficial. However, in high levels, it can accumulate in animals and cause health problems or death.

* Barium: In extremely high doses, it can be lethal to some aquatic plants and fish.

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