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Port halts all dirt sales after warning Work on polluted soil on levees postponed

Published in the Stockton Record on 12/09/04

Port halts all dirt sales after warning
Work on polluted soil on levees postponed

By Dana Nichols - Record Staff Writer

Published Thursday, December 9, 2004

STOCKTON -- The Port of Stockton has halted all sales of dredge spoils for any purpose after getting a warning letter last month from the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The halt cuts a dirt source that each year had provided tens of thousands of cubic yards of low-cost soil to construction projects.

The port had already stopped selling dredge spoils for use on Delta levees after spoils used to shore up a Trapper Slough levee turned out to be contaminated with toxic metals that could leach into the waterway.

The port's polluted dirt used on the levee was credited with saving Highway 4 from being washed away by floodwaters immediately after the June 3 levee break on Jones Tract, a Delta island.

Meanwhile, rain this week is further delaying work to stabilize the soil along Trapper Slough. That work is aimed at cutting the risk that metals will leak into the waterway and harm wildlife, Department of Water Resources officials said.

DWR senior engineering geologist Brent Lamkin said work is complete on approximately 3,200 feet of the 14,200-foot-long levee, or less than a quarter of it.

Officials originally hoped to start what they thought would be just a few weeks of work in late September or early October. The goal was to complete the fix before the rainy season. Rainstorms since then have delayed work. Lamkin said it can take days after a storm for the levee to dry out enough to support heavy equipment.

DWR officials say repeated tests have not found any problems in the waters of Trapper Slough this fall, even after storms. But they have not yet perfected a more-complex test that would measure the metals in rainwater as it runs down the front of the levee.

The work involves three main fixes: grading the levee top so it will drain away from Trapper Slough; mixing agricultural lime into the soil, changing the chemistry of the dirt in order to cut the chances of metals leaking out; and collecting any of the contaminated soil that ended up on the slough side of the levee.

The dredge spoils came from a storage site called Roberts II, located on Roberts Island. The port for decades has sold the material from that site to clear space for future spoils dredged from the Stockton Deep Water Channel. Port officials say they do not ask buyers where they will use the spoils.

A Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board official said Wednesday that the Port should not only know where the dirt goes, but port officials should prevent the dirt from being used in places where it could cause harm.

"We issued a letter to the port last month that clearly outlines that that operation is in violation of the current order," said Alex Baillie, an environmental specialist with the regional water board.

Port officials insist the dirt they sell is clean and safe for virtually any use. They also argue that the dredge spoils placed on the Trapper Slough levee may pose less of a problem than the dirt that previously existed atop the levee.

Leslie F. Harder, flood-management chief for DWR, confirmed that recent tests found that the levee's original dirt is more acidic than the port's dirt that was placed on top of the levee. But Harder said he doesn't yet have additional test results indicating whether the original soil also contains toxic metals.

Soils must be both acidic and contain metals to pose a risk of contaminating waterways with the metal.

Port officials don't agree with the regional water board's view that the Port should ask buyers how they would use dredgings.

"It is not necessary under the set of circumstances we've operated under for 30 years," said Jeff Kaspar, deputy director of property management and environmental affairs.

Port records show that since December of 2003, a single Stockton company, Conti Materials Service, purchased 88,990 cubic yards of dirt for $133,485. That's the equivalent of more than 44,000 full truckloads.

Don Conti of Conti materials was out of the office Wednesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

Kaspar said that after recent media inquiries, he asked some dirt buyers how they used the spoils. It appears that most of the dirt was used as fill material used beneath building foundations, a use Kaspar said was extremely unlikely to pose any risk to waterways

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* To reach reporter Dana Nichols, phone (209) 546-8295 or email dnichols@recordnet.com

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