Oregon environmental regulators have cut a tentative deal with a herbicide manufacturer that makes taxpayers responsible for roughly three-quarters of monitoring and cleanup costs at Alkali Lake, one of Oregon's most contaminated dump sites.
The proposed agreement between Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality and the company would also keep in place up to 1.4 million gallons of herbicide production waste and a current gravel cap over the waste. That's instead of paying millions to clean up the site as favored by Lake County commissioners and the Oregon Natural Desert Association.
If a cleanup ends up being required down the line, expenses could go as high as $49 million, costing taxpayers up to $39 million.
As the Vietnam War raged, a Portland herbicide manufacturer now owned by Bayer CropScience shipped 25,000 barrels of highly toxic and in some cases carcinogenic waste to southeast Oregon's high desert from 1969 to 1971, including components of the Agent Orange herbicide widely used in the war.
In 1974, the state took over the site, later crushing and burying the leaking barrels, a low-cost option that scientific advisers opposed. Shallow groundwater at the site has since been contaminated, with a plume covering 40 acres.
More information on Alkali Lake
• To submit comments on the proposal, e-mail: christensen.jeff@deq.state.or.us
• To read the consent order, click here.
• For video of waste drums being bulldozed, click here.
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Oregon's Plans for Alkali Lake Herbicide Dump Raise Concerns
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By Scott Learn
The Oregonian, Sept 2, 2009
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