Health Dept. 1:05pm Friday 4-7

Spoke with Kathy Pierson at the Health Dept. regarding the contamination at the Rinker pit.

Rinker hired an environmental consulting firm named SCS Engineers to study samples taken at the Glenwood site in Everett. Apparently a similar amount of contaminated material was deposited there in a confined area. Rinker doesn't know exactly where the material at the Maltby site is located except to say it was deposited 70 feet above ground water and has since been covered by 360,000 tons of fill.

The samples at the Glenwood site were taken from 10 feet down and showed no trace of Arsenic or Cadmium and only trace amounts of Chromium and Lead, but well within the safe range. Apparently there was language in their report indicating that the winter rains had washed away and diluted much of the metals.

At this point the Snohomish County Health Dept. feels the need for expert input on this matter since this is not their normal area of expertise. They have forwarded for review copies of the SCS report to the State Dept. of Health and Dept. of Ecology as well as Hydrologist consultants. As Kathy put it "They have the people with PHD's that we don't".

She encouraged us to get back with her in a couple of weeks to find out what they've learned.