COUNTY HAS NO COMPLIANCE OFFICER!

National Cancer Institute Shows Mason County
Ranking #1 in Washington State for Cancer Incidence

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Terri Thompson Mason County Progressive

I read a letter to the Mason County Commissioners over a month ago, informing them that Mason County has the highest cancer incidence in the State of Washington according to the National Cancer Institute.

I asked that the Mason County Commission consider hiring a full time Compliance Officer, or two, independent of grant monies so the job would be consistent and on-going, and not one that would go away when the grant ran out. The job description would be comprehensive to cover all areas of the County, and not just shorelines. I am now making this information public.

The National Cancer Institutes's Washington State cancer profiles were just redone, taking new information from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) in Nov., 2011, and from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Jan,. 2012. Mason County is still #1 in the state for cancer incidence, but we are now also #1 for kidney cancer incidence; #2 for lung/bronchus, breast, and thyroid cancer incidence; #4 for pancreatic, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, bladder, and liver cancer incidence; #5 for ovarian cancer and leukemia incidence; and #7 for colon, melanoma, and stomach cancer incidence.

These are devastating statistics! Yes, personal life choices do cause cancer (smoking, poor eating, etc.), and heredity may also be a factor, but the environment factors, including the water we drink and air we breathe, are cancer causing as well. Mason County has too huge a problem with cancer incidence to ignore the environment causes.

I have spent the last two years of my life reading reports and investigations regarding many sites and locations within Mason County. I have found potential cancer causing chemicals in the ground water; which is water in the aquifers that is our drinking water. I have researched hazardous sites where monitoring may be completed and the tests exceed maximum contaminate limits, according to the Clean Water Act, without enforcement.

Since we lack an Environmental Compliance Officer in Mason County, we have no assurance that our drinking water is as clear and clean as it looks. A Compliance Officer would test not only for chemicals and bacteria presently required by the state for public water systems, but also for all other cancer causing chemicals and agents; especially with Mason County’s high cancer incidence.

Mason County Department of Health is the accountable, responsible party for all biosolid and solid waste issues in Mason County, according to the Dept. of Ecology (DOE). The DOE stated that they only deal with permitting issues. Vicki Kirkpatrick, with the Mason County Health Department, recently communicated with Dr. Diana Yu, the Mason County Health Officer, regarding the National Cancer Institute findings, and asked her to look into Mason County's cancers for a Board of Health presentation/discussion.

My question is: How can Dr. Yu give an educated answer to Mason County’s high cancer incidences when she does not have the complete history of contaminated sites, their locations, the susceptibility of the land and aquifers, including a map of the CARAs (Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas) to really know what may be spilled on the soil that could be in the drinking water?

We have not had an Environmental Compliance Officer in years. The job would entail ensuring permitting for only allowable businesses upon a critical recharge area, making sure that sampling is complete and up to date, and that hazardous sites are regularly monitored and they are compliant. They would theorize and plot present toxic movement directionally, and give home owners on private wells a heads up that they should have their wells tested for certain chemicals.

There are state rules about testing public water systems, but not private wells. Many private wells go untested, and if the water remains clear, the has no idea what may be in their water. They would also make sure that businesses and the public comply with State and Federal laws, and enforce them with penalty. Isn’t this the only way that we can have confidence that the citizens and water are being protected and are not the possible cause of cancer?

Years of pouring dioxin ash and all types of garbage including septage in unlined landfills, over Class 1 aquifers, has been basically forgotten. Every time it rains, chemicals may be recharging the aquifer. Goose Lake, a Superfund clean-up site over a shallow aquifer, is still contaminated with no clean-up started.

The Port has chromium and other industrial chemical issues, and has several sites that are paved over since there are so much contaminated soils still in the ground. Years of heavy military and industrial usage of our lands over the shallow aquifers makes me very concerned, since we have no Compliance Officer enforcement. It is like running the County without a police force enforcing the laws: imagine the chaos and misconduct. The same is true for the environmental laws: we need enforcement to protect from misconduct and environmental chaos. Presently, we have no enforcement whatsoever!

The Board of Health completed a health study this year that showed Mason County ranks 35th out of 39 counties in Washington State in overall health. I researched that study and discovered that only 4% of the weight of the study had anything to do with the environment, and was based on estimated bad air days. We need to start looking at more than 4% of "estimated" numbers. We want to see 100% of the ‘real’ numbers and find out why the high number of cancer incidence.

Our beautiful County is dumped on by other counties. I hope our community can come together and ask for better things. Let’s make Mason County a model county. We need to become responsible and educated concerning water and aquifers. We need to demand our local government and permitting agencies put clean drinking water as a priority on their list, including hiring a compliance officer. This may mean working together for Federal and State funding to clean up many of our contaminated sites. Let’s make sure there is plenty of pure clean, drinking water for future generations. If we work together, we could expect this to be a place for future generations and clean businesses to live and flourish together.

If you would like to be actively involved in working on this issue, email me at mwtat@hctc.com.

Also, please let your government officials know that you support a full time Compliance Officer to try to identify contaminating sources.

We need to get rid of our title of Number One in the State for Cancer! We may not be able to afford it right now, but we may not afford not to.

Visit:
http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/whatsinyourwater/WA/CityofShelton/5378170/

And:
http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/sdw_report_v2.first_table?pws_id=WA5378170&state=WA&source=Groundwater&population=10122&sys_num=0

Graphic: www.petpalstv.com