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Report: Soil went to dozens of sites

Published in the Stockton Record on 12/19/04

Report: Soil went to dozens of sites

By Dana Nichols - Record Staff Writer
Published Sunday, December 19, 2004

STOCKTON -- Dredge spoils contaminated with toxic metals were sold to dozens and possibly hundreds of sites across Northern California over the past 14 months, according to a report the Port of Stockton prepared for pollution regulators.

Central Valley Water Quality Control Board scientists have been questioning the port about its dredge spoils since they determined that spoils used to repair a Delta levee posed a danger to the nearby waterway.

More than 52,000 cubic yards of dredged river mud was used to raise a 21Ž2-mile-long Trapper Slough levee after a nearby levee broke and flooded a 12,000-acre Delta island on June 3.

State officials are working to contain the polluted dirt on Trapper Slough, a fix that could cost the state and the port hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to protect tiny Delta creatures.

In at least one other case newly disclosed in the report, 400 cubic yards used to shore up Neugebaurer Road near Turner Cut might pollute groundwater. Regulators haven't yet decided whether they'll require pollution cleanup fixes at that site or any others.

The new report lists dozens of sites, from Novato to Stockton to Valley Springs, where the soil was used under building foundations, in landscaping, to fill utility trenches and as bedding for pipes. Much of the dirt went to new subdivisions throughout the region.

The report also shows that some of it went to school construction sites and for use around the waterfront arena and baseball stadium rising in downtown Stockton.

Port officials say they're now willing to give pollution regulators whatever information they need. Port consultants want to make sure they fix any pollution problems so that they can resume selling dredge spoils, a practice the port halted in November.

The port sells the soil primarily to make space for future dredge spoils. Since October 2003, the port has made more than $388,000 by selling the muck it dredges from the San Joaquin River. That money bought a variety of agencies and companies a total of 298,634 cubic yards of dredge spoils -- enough to cover the Golden Gate Bridge's roadway in dirt 10 feet deep.

Reclamation District 684 bought some of the fill in June to fix a levee road. It's that site, along Turner Cut, where regulators worry about additional water-pollution problems.

Engineer Tom Rosten said in a letter to the port that the levee maintenance district used the dirt to correct a sharp drop-off from a levee road shoulder. The drop was so dangerous that a side-loading dump truck trailer tipped over at the site while crews were making the repair, Rosten wrote.

Dante Nomellini, secretary and attorney for Reclamation District 684, said he was not alarmed to hear that water regulators were concerned about the dirt used to patch Neugebaurer Road.

"I don't know that there is a problem," Nomellini said, adding that the dirt is merely dredged soil from Delta rivers.

The port relies on frequent dredging to keep ships traveling along the Stockton Deep Water Channel. The spoils are polluted for a variety of reasons, including upstream mines and former industrial operations along waterways.

The tainted soil used elsewhere in Northern California is likely buried beneath roads and concrete foundations, where it poses little or no risk to water. Regulators and scientists say the levels of the metals in the dirt likely pose no danger to people.

Tests of the soil on the Trapper Slough levee triggered work by the California Department of Water Resources to treat the soil and reduce the risk that toxic metals could wash into Trapper Slough. Work is still under way to grade the levee top to drain away from the slough, treat the soil with agricultural lime so it is less acidic and scrape up any dirt that ended up on the water side of the levee.

The dredge spoils pose a risk to wildlife once it dries out. A complex chemical reaction can cause the soil to become acidic, increasing the likelihood that metals like copper, chromium, lead and nickel will leach into waterways.

"Aquatic life is very sensitive to low concentrations in surface water," said Bill Marshall, a section chief for the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. "The same levels of metals are frequently not a problem in eating or drinking water."

Marshall said that copper levels that are perfectly safe in drinking water, for example, are hundreds of times higher than the levels considered safe for fish and other creatures that live in water.

So people who might have bought some of the tainted dirt from a local nursery don't need to worry about whether children play in it, scientists said.

"The numbers for lead are nice and low," Howard Mielke, a soil scientist at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, wrote in an e-mail.

Tests conducted for the port in February examined lead levels at two sites where the port stores soil dredged from the Stockton Deep Water Channel. Those tests found the spoils' lead levels are roughly the same as what could be found in a healthy person's body, according to data published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, even dredge spoils that were used under a roadway could, in some circumstances, be a problem, said Alex Baillie, an environmental specialist with the regional water board.

"It depends on where that roadway is," Baillie said. "The devil is in the details."

For example, if the dirt was used on a road that crosses a seasonal creek, the toxic metals could leach into the creek and flow to other waterways.

Water regulators said they planned to focus attention on places where large quantities of dredge spoils were dumped near waterways, such as Trapper Slough.

Baillie was still sorting through the report last week and said he did not know yet whether he would find additional hazards to area waters. Some information is still missing.

In the case of 14,000 cubic yards sold to MCH Electric of Tracy, the port's report said only that the material went to roads in Galt, San Ramon and Dublin and did not provide further details.

That amount of dirt told to the Tracy company could cover a football field more than 6 feet deep. MCH managers did not respond to phone messages left Friday morning.

Conti Materials Service, a Stockton business, delivered the most port dirt since October 2003 to when the port suspended sales of dredge spoils in November.

The report said Conti delivered 181,330 cubic yards of port dirt to dozens of users. That's nearly enough dirt to fill the Transamerica Pyramid building in San Francisco.

The soil that Conti delivered was used to fill Pacific Gas and Electric Co. utility trenches in 20 different cities in Northern California. It was used under commercial and residential foundation slabs from Calaveras County to Manteca and in subdivisions throughout Stockton.

In at least one case, a customer who reportedly got the soil says the report is wrong.

"I don't have anything like that, not at my place," said Ria Duivenvoorde, owner of Hollandutch Nursery on North Davis Road.

The report says that Duivenvoorde got 96 cubic yards of dredge spoils delivered by Conti. Duivenvoorde says she did get material from Conti, but that it was "sandy loam" dug from a pit.

Conti owner Don Conti did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this story.

Port consultant Mark O'Brien of Environmental Risk Services said he is developing a plan to treat soil so that the port in the future can sell its spoils without raising pollution fears.

"We have done back flips," O'Brien said.

Marshall acknowledged that toxic-metal problems are making it difficult for the port and reclamation districts to dredge in the Delta. But he was optimistic that solutions could be found.

In fact, he said the port is already treating some dredge spoils with agricultural lime to reduce their acidity and make them safe for reuse.

Ultimately, water-pollution regulators from will have to sign off on any plan for reusing spoils. The port is working on that plan now.

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

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