Contaminated sediment along the Columbia in Vancouver

Polychlorinated biphenyls, a carcinogen, contaminate a stretch of Columbia River shoreline near the old Alcoa smelter in Vancouver. The sluggish pace of cleanup casts a shadow over a new initiative to reduce toxins in the Great River of the West. (Photos by DAVE OLSON, The Columbian)

Sunday, July 15, 2007
BY ERIK ROBINSON Columbian staff writer
Ten years after discovering seriously contaminated sediment along the Columbia in Vancouver, the polluter and the state have yet to begin cleanup
Acarcinogenic pollutant dumped by an aluminum smelter has tainted a stretch of Columbia River shoreline in Vancouver for at least a decade.
The polluter - Alcoa - knows it. So does the state Department of Ecology. Nevertheless, 10 years after the pollution was identified, not one shovelful of polluted sediment has been removed. And cleanup is still years away. Meanwhile, there's a good chance that people have been eating tiny clams growing in a toxic stew of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Researchers happened across the PCB-tainted clams near the old Alcoa smelter, which closed seven years ago, as part of a larger study involving a common Asian bivalve. What they found was startling enough to prompt a public health advisory..............................