Alcoa Vancouver Cleanup

Progress Report, Feb. 19, 2008

Alcoa met a major milestone last week in its planned cleanup of contaminated sediments at the company’s former smelter site along the Columbia River. The company submitted its Joint Aquatic Resource Permit Application (JARPA) to the federal Army Corps of Engineers on Feb. 13, 2007 – two weeks ahead of schedule. Approval of this application is key to ensuring Alcoa can dredge PCB-contaminated sediments from the Columbia River this fall.

Permits generally take several months for review and approval by the Corps. Alcoa and Ecology hope to hear a decision on the application this summer. Details of the project are outlined in the application, which is available on this Web site.

Alcoa also included information in the JARPA about its plans to remove PCB-contaminated clam from its shoreline and in the river.

The river’s depth throughout the winter, spring and summer will keep clam beds from being exposed. The clam beds are located under about 15 feet of water right now and are buried deeply in the sediments, approximately one-foot below the river bed.

If the clam beds on Alcoa’s shoreline are exposed before the dredging prep work begins, Alcoa will deploy a protective boom in the river. This boom will prevent access to Alcoa’s shoreline and any illegal harvest freshwater clams from the property.