Oil spill reaches Bonneville Dam

[baby_bear]

http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=73950

From the Salem, Oregon Statesman Journal

<snip>
Oil containing a cancer-causing compound spilled from the transformer of a major dam into the Columbia River, killing fish and leaving a rainbow-hued streak 23 miles long.
...
Environmentalists are calling for an investigation, claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did too little after the spill was first noticed on Thursday, while understating the amount of oil that leaked.
...
In its initial statement, the Army Corps of Engineers said roughly 75 gallons were released into the river. But by Saturday, Mark MacIntyre, spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, said the figure is closer to 1,000 gallons.
...
The Corps stressed the toxic content in the oil is low — on the order of eight parts per million, a level the Environmental Protection Agency considers non-hazardous, he said.
...
In a scathing press release, the Audubon Society and Columbia Riverkeeper said the Corps had “intentionally minimized the significance of this spill.”

</snip>
more..

That Corps statement that the PCB content is low is totally bogus. Eight parts per million is thousands of times higher than ambient water quality criteria for surface water. The reference to non-hazardous has to do with how waste transformer oil can legally be disposed. What a crock, and a hugely misleading statement.

This is just awful.

s_m

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. Well, the Columbia river is the most pollluted place in America already

So at least it happened there.

I have to hold my nose when I drive by the Columbia river.