MERCURY + DREDGING + LNG = LOSE, LOSE, LOSE
The GRN is proud to be a network of local, regional and national conservation and community groups committed to protecting and restoring the resources of the Gulf Region for future generations.
This blog posting comes to you from Diane Wilson, the head of Calhoun County Resource Watch, who seeks to protect a quiet corner of the Texas Coast from polluters and politicos.
In May, 2007 Galveston District of the Corps of Engineers issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate the impact of the Calhoun County Navigation District’s widening and deepening of 27 miles of the Lavaca /Matagorda Bay Ship Channel, Port Lavaca, Texas
Our concern about the proposal arises primarily from the continued presence of mercury contamination in the sediments of Lavaca and Matagorda Bays. Sediments in Lavaca Bay were contaminated with mercury from past operations at Alcoa's Point Comfort, Texas facility. From l967 until l979 Alcoa operated a chlor-alkali processing unit at the plant and discharged wastewater containing mercury into Lavaca Bay.
Federal EPA documents state that Alcoa discharged 165,000 lbs of mercury or an average of 67 pounds per day into Lavaca Bay from l967 until 1970. However, internal and confidential Alcoa documents and transcripts from a 1994 court case in Washington between Alcoa and their insurers estimated l,223,755 pounds of mercury was released between l967 to l979 and that on a 5 day normal working period in the chlor-alkali unit, 1500 pounds of mercury was lost with flow charts showed mercury going to the bay.
In the early l970's, mercury levels in oysters in Lavaca Bay were significantly elevated and the Texas Department of Health closed parts of the bay to the harvesting of oysters. In 1988, the Department issued a closure order prohibiting the taking of finfish and crabs for consumption from a portion of Lavaca and Cox Bays, based on mercury levels found in these resources.
A Preliminary Public Health Assessment prepared by the Texas Department of Health stated in l995 that eating fish and crabs contaminated with mercury at the concentrations observed from the closure area of Lavaca Bay could affect the unborn fetus of pregnant women and, as such, classified the Lavaca Bay site an urgent public health hazard and a Mercury Superfund.
Although some clean-up of the mercury has occurred during the Superfund cleanup, there is still considerable controversy over how much mercury was left in the bay, especially given the conflicting mercury data, and the uncertainty of the health of the fishing community. Calhoun County fishermen, environmental activists, and concerned Calhoun County residents say the Mercury Superfund failed miserably in its attempt to address the health impacts of mercury on the mostly poor minority Vietnamese and Hispanic fishing communities. When local shrimpers asked the EPA about the number of cases of learning/physical disabilities among children in the county and if that number was greater than other counties, the Preliminary Public Health Assessment prepared by the Texas Department of Health stated: Unknown.
Dr. John Villanacci, in charge of Public Health Assessment at Texas Department of Health, said when the agency attempted to talk with the Vietnamese community about eating the contaminated seafood, they ran into a wall of silence. He suspected the people were afraid to admit consuming fish from the bay because they would also be admitting to breaking the law. That left nothing to investigate. No exposed population. No tests. A community health study was never performed on the fishing community.
Make no mistake about it. Mercury is a serious health threat. Methylmercury is a nonspecific toxin, meaning it can attack a variety of body systems. It often damages the central nervous system, resulting in consequences such as concentration difficulty, memory loss, and mood changes. Mercury can also cause birth defects. Recently, epidemiological and biochemical research studies have shown that mercury is directly linked to the development of autism spectrum disorders and is significantly toxic to the gastrointestinal, immunological, metabolic and neurobiological systems in children
The Calhoun County Navigation District's proposed deepening and widening of the ship channel will resuspend mercury contaminated sediments, potentially increasing the biological uptake of mercury by shellfish and fish in Lavaca and Matagorda Bays and in turn, increasing the risk of mercury contamination being transmitted to folks eating fish from Lavaca and Matagorda Bays . As it stands now (without more dredging and resuspension) the mercury contamination levels in fish from Lavaca and Matagorda Bays have been much higher than either the Texas coastal or national averages.
A second concern about the widening and deepening of the Matagorda Ship Channel arises from the mess that exists at the jetties where the Ship Channel enters the Gulf. When the ship channel was originally constructed, the depth through the jetties was about 45 feet. Over the years, the channel has scoured to the point that it is about 90 feet deep.
At the same time that the Matagorda Ship Channel has been eroding to an unprecedented depth, Pass Cavallo, the natural fish pass immediately south of the ship channel, has been silting in. Today, Pass Cavallo is barely navigable and the potential exists that it will silt-in entirely. The energy within the Matagorda Bay system necessary to keep Pass Cavallo open is being focused within the Matagorda Ship Channel, spelling the end for Pass Cavallo.
The loss of Pass Cavallo is a major concern for the fishery of Matagorda Bay. Many species such as brown and white shrimp, blue crabs and redfish (among others) spawn in the Gulf and migrate back into the bay as free-floating organisms. These larval life forms make this trip by settling to the bottom when the tide goes out and then releasing and riding the incoming tide into the bay, then dropping back to the bottom again. In this manner, organisms lacking their own mobility can ride the tide into the estuarine nursery.
The deep scour of the Matagorda Ship Channel through the jetties means that these organisms will have a more difficult time navigating into the bay, given the depth of the channel. Pass Cavallo has functioned over the years as the primary fish pass on the south end of the bay, yet it has been getting shallower and shallower, and will eventually cease to function.
A third problem (or fact of life) is that for all practical purposes, the ship channel dredging has been called to life because the Calhoun County Navigation District hopes to draw in the proposed Liquid Natural Gas Terminal which will be sited on land owned by the Navigation District. Additionally, two coal burning power plants are trying to get permitted, one by…. you guessed it… Calhoun County Navigation District and the other by Formosa Plastics. Not only will the fishermen have a resuspension of mercury in the bay sediments, they will also have a suspension of mercury in the air from the two coal burning power plants.
. .
The bottom line is that Matagorda Bay is the most heavily impacted of all of the bay systems of the Texas coast and the health of its people the most ignored. They both need serious oversight and protection, something that arguably is not being provided by our state and federal agencies. I would urge everyone to vote this project OUT.
Diane Wilson
Diane chronicled her work as an activist in her book, "An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas."
GRN's Campaign Director Aaron Viles reviewed the book for Chemical & Engineering News in August of 2006.
The GRN is proud to be a network of local, regional and national conservation and community groups committed to protecting and restoring the resources of the Gulf Region for future generations.
This blog posting comes to you from Diane Wilson, the head of Calhoun County Resource Watch, who seeks to protect a quiet corner of the Texas Coast from polluters and politicos.
In May, 2007 Galveston District of the Corps of Engineers issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate the impact of the Calhoun County Navigation District’s widening and deepening of 27 miles of the Lavaca /Matagorda Bay Ship Channel, Port Lavaca, TexasOur concern about the proposal arises primarily from the continued presence of mercury contamination in the sediments of Lavaca and Matagorda Bays. Sediments in Lavaca Bay were contaminated with mercury from past operations at Alcoa's Point Comfort, Texas facility. From l967 until l979 Alcoa operated a chlor-alkali processing unit at the plant and discharged wastewater containing mercury into Lavaca Bay.
Federal EPA documents state that Alcoa discharged 165,000 lbs of mercury or an average of 67 pounds per day into Lavaca Bay from l967 until 1970. However, internal and confidential Alcoa documents and transcripts from a 1994 court case in Washington between Alcoa and their insurers estimated l,223,755 pounds of mercury was released between l967 to l979 and that on a 5 day normal working period in the chlor-alkali unit, 1500 pounds of mercury was lost with flow charts showed mercury going to the bay.
In the early l970's, mercury levels in oysters in Lavaca Bay were significantly elevated and the Texas Department of Health closed parts of the bay to the harvesting of oysters. In 1988, the Department issued a closure order prohibiting the taking of finfish and crabs for consumption from a portion of Lavaca and Cox Bays, based on mercury levels found in these resources.
A Preliminary Public Health Assessment prepared by the Texas Department of Health stated in l995 that eating fish and crabs contaminated with mercury at the concentrations observed from the closure area of Lavaca Bay could affect the unborn fetus of pregnant women and, as such, classified the Lavaca Bay site an urgent public health hazard and a Mercury Superfund.
Although some clean-up of the mercury has occurred during the Superfund cleanup, there is still considerable controversy over how much mercury was left in the bay, especially given the conflicting mercury data, and the uncertainty of the health of the fishing community. Calhoun County fishermen, environmental activists, and concerned Calhoun County residents say the Mercury Superfund failed miserably in its attempt to address the health impacts of mercury on the mostly poor minority Vietnamese and Hispanic fishing communities. When local shrimpers asked the EPA about the number of cases of learning/physical disabilities among children in the county and if that number was greater than other counties, the Preliminary Public Health Assessment prepared by the Texas Department of Health stated: Unknown.
Dr. John Villanacci, in charge of Public Health Assessment at Texas Department of Health, said when the agency attempted to talk with the Vietnamese community about eating the contaminated seafood, they ran into a wall of silence. He suspected the people were afraid to admit consuming fish from the bay because they would also be admitting to breaking the law. That left nothing to investigate. No exposed population. No tests. A community health study was never performed on the fishing community.
Make no mistake about it. Mercury is a serious health threat. Methylmercury is a nonspecific toxin, meaning it can attack a variety of body systems. It often damages the central nervous system, resulting in consequences such as concentration difficulty, memory loss, and mood changes. Mercury can also cause birth defects. Recently, epidemiological and biochemical research studies have shown that mercury is directly linked to the development of autism spectrum disorders and is significantly toxic to the gastrointestinal, immunological, metabolic and neurobiological systems in children
The Calhoun County Navigation District's proposed deepening and widening of the ship channel will resuspend mercury contaminated sediments, potentially increasing the biological uptake of mercury by shellfish and fish in Lavaca and Matagorda Bays and in turn, increasing the risk of mercury contamination being transmitted to folks eating fish from Lavaca and Matagorda Bays . As it stands now (without more dredging and resuspension) the mercury contamination levels in fish from Lavaca and Matagorda Bays have been much higher than either the Texas coastal or national averages.
A second concern about the widening and deepening of the Matagorda Ship Channel arises from the mess that exists at the jetties where the Ship Channel enters the Gulf. When the ship channel was originally constructed, the depth through the jetties was about 45 feet. Over the years, the channel has scoured to the point that it is about 90 feet deep.
At the same time that the Matagorda Ship Channel has been eroding to an unprecedented depth, Pass Cavallo, the natural fish pass immediately south of the ship channel, has been silting in. Today, Pass Cavallo is barely navigable and the potential exists that it will silt-in entirely. The energy within the Matagorda Bay system necessary to keep Pass Cavallo open is being focused within the Matagorda Ship Channel, spelling the end for Pass Cavallo.
The loss of Pass Cavallo is a major concern for the fishery of Matagorda Bay. Many species such as brown and white shrimp, blue crabs and redfish (among others) spawn in the Gulf and migrate back into the bay as free-floating organisms. These larval life forms make this trip by settling to the bottom when the tide goes out and then releasing and riding the incoming tide into the bay, then dropping back to the bottom again. In this manner, organisms lacking their own mobility can ride the tide into the estuarine nursery.
The deep scour of the Matagorda Ship Channel through the jetties means that these organisms will have a more difficult time navigating into the bay, given the depth of the channel. Pass Cavallo has functioned over the years as the primary fish pass on the south end of the bay, yet it has been getting shallower and shallower, and will eventually cease to function.
A third problem (or fact of life) is that for all practical purposes, the ship channel dredging has been called to life because the Calhoun County Navigation District hopes to draw in the proposed Liquid Natural Gas Terminal which will be sited on land owned by the Navigation District. Additionally, two coal burning power plants are trying to get permitted, one by…. you guessed it… Calhoun County Navigation District and the other by Formosa Plastics. Not only will the fishermen have a resuspension of mercury in the bay sediments, they will also have a suspension of mercury in the air from the two coal burning power plants.
. .
The bottom line is that Matagorda Bay is the most heavily impacted of all of the bay systems of the Texas coast and the health of its people the most ignored. They both need serious oversight and protection, something that arguably is not being provided by our state and federal agencies. I would urge everyone to vote this project OUT.
Diane Wilson
Diane chronicled her work as an activist in her book, "An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas."
GRN's Campaign Director Aaron Viles reviewed the book for Chemical & Engineering News in August of 2006.
Labels: Fish, Member Groups, Mercury
posted by Aaron at 12:56 PM
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