A man approaches among the debris, shoeless, weathered and wielding a metal baseball bat. A recent theft has kept him suspicious of visitors. Behind him, four signs dominate the main entrance to a junkyard, three of which read: No Trespassing by Order of U.S. Government. The other indicates that Fire District #16 will not respond to emergencies beyond the entrance.
Tracy Nance is the full-time caretaker of Foothills Recycling, a recently closed waste disposal facility along the south fork of the Nooksack River. Fifteen years ago, Nance’s friend, Robert McKay, began operating Foothills. He intended persuade Whatcom County officials to construct a barricade that would prevent the river from eroding the property.
McKay operated the site for more than 10 years as it became a common dumping site for residents, companies and tribal members. He accepted materials other regulated facilities either banned or had stringent disposal guidelines against, such as fuels, oils and batteries.
The roughly 4-acre site contains materials that pose threats to human and ecological health. The site received batteries, construction debris, metals, unlabeled oil drums, household wastes and automobiles still containing oil, gas, brake fluid and other fluids. The potential for chemicals within these materials to contaminate the soil, groundwater and surface water is a serious concern among Whatcom County officials, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Nooksack Tribe.
The EPA requires regulated facilities that accept automobiles to remove all fluids within a car before it can be stored, but that wasn’t the case at Foothills.
"McKay felt that he was providing a service to the community by opening up his property for waste disposal," Nance said.
Tom Eaton, the associate regional administrator for the EPA, said the site is a jurisdictional gray area. Federal or state jurisdiction cannot regulate the site because the Bureau of Indian Affairs holds McKay’s land in trust. Tribal officials have no authority either because his property doesn’t fall within the Nooksack Reservation.
The Whatcom County Health Department complained about the site as early as 1993, but a lack of jurisdiction left the department with few options. In 2001, the county’s concern triggered officials to encourage the EPA to get involved. Still nothing changed. It wasn’t until the winter of 2005, when the river flooded its banks and began eroding an area that contained demolition debris, that government organizations got involved.
"Politically, you have a hot potato," said Jeff Hegedus, environmental health supervisor for the health department.
Whatcom County, the EPA, Indian Affairs and the Nooksack Tribe are cooperating to evaluate and clean up the closed site. The EPA has provided approximately $300,000 in an effort to remove any potentially hazardous materials and push all waste at least 150 feet from the river’s edge.
Chemical contamination from abandoned junk vehicles is the primary concern regarding hazards on the site. Hegedus said it’s imperative that the 800 to 1,000 abandoned vehicles existing at the site be removed before the onset of winter.
"Nasty contaminants are associated with the auto industry," said Mak Kaufman, a stormwater inspector from the Washington State Department of Ecology Bellingham field office. "I know they have really nasty stuff in them because I spilled some brake fluid on my boot and it ate through the leather in about a week."
Automobile fluids contain a host of hazardous chemical compounds that in only minuscule amounts—parts per million or even parts per billion—can cause negative environmental and human health effects. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, used motor oil interacts with engine components and begins to dissolve the heavy metals associated with the surrounding parts.
Organic compounds in motor oil include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH’s which are toxic to young fish because they haven’t developed an immune system. If the fish are exposed to oil and other toxic substances, it could ruin an entire year class, which is all individuals of a fish population spawned and hatched in a given year. The south fork of the Nooksack River is home to several species of fish and serves as spawning ground for endangered salmon and resident trout.
Dale Griggs, a recently retired fish biologist for the Nooksack Tribe, said that pink, chum and coho salmon, spring chinook, sockeye, and rainbow trout all inhabit the south fork at some point in the year. Salmonids are in the river year round in one stage or another.
Staple sources of food for the fish populations in the Nooksack are in critical danger if automobile fluids contaminate their habitat.
According to the EPA, benzopyrene, one compound in the PAH category, is present in internal combustion engines. The compound readily absorbs and adheres to soil particles, sediment beds and suspended particles in water. Aquatic organisms such as plankton, oysters and some fish species pass the compound up the food chain.
Hegedus said the river is threatening to cut off its meander and straighten out. If this happens, a portion of the site and its hazardous materials might be submerged or separated from the property.
McKay’s property is located directly behind a cut bank, which is the erosion area on a river. In upcoming winters, floodwaters will continue to flood areas of the site unless the riverbank is stabilized.
"The river moved 300 feet into Bob’s property and it took the levee out," Nance said, referring to the erosion last winter. "Nothing had leached into the river until last winter."
No scientific research has been conducted in the vicinity to determine changes in soil or water quality. To further compound the Foothills dilemma, two cities, Ferndale and Lynden, draw drinking water from the Nooksack River downstream of the site.
"We didn’t find evidence that the soil was highly contaminated," Eaton said. "It’s more of a junkyard dump than a toxic waste site, but still, it contains stuff you don’t want in the river."
The "stuff" Eaton refers to illustrates the ambiguity of the situation. Not even McKay and Nance know exactly what was deposited at the site. No records were kept on companies that dumped materials on the site, and confessions concerning the disposal of hazardous wastes aren’t piling up.