Teck Cominco smelter left off major polluters list

The amount of toxic chemicals released in Washington dropped in 2002, but an environmental group says the report by the state Department of Ecology ignored the biggest source of pollution into the state’s waters.

The Teck Cominco lead-zinc smelter, just over the border in Trail, B.C., dumped more toxic waste into Washington waters than all the other polluters combined, according to an analysis by the Washington Public Interest Research Group.

But because the plant is located in Canada, it is not part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s annual Toxic Release Inventory, WashPIRG said.

“Teck Cominco portrays itself as a reformed sinner that now is a good environmental steward,” said Mo McBroom, a lawyer for WashPIRG. “But the fact remains that Teck Cominco’s smelter is still a major ongoing polluter of the Columbia River.”

The state Department of Ecology on Monday released a report showing that reported releases of toxic chemicals in Washington went down by 2.5 million pounds from 2001 to 2002. For 2002, 19.7 million pounds of toxic chemicals were reported released to the air, land and water in the state, compared with 22.2 million pounds the year before.

Idell Hansen of the Ecology Department on Wednesday acknowledged that Teck Cominco smelter’s releases were not included.

“We would be missing that part of the picture,” she said.

While the reduction in toxic wastes from Washington factories is good news, it is the result of both prevention efforts and a bad economy that has shuttered some Washington factories, Hansen said. The death of the aluminum industry because of high electricity prices is a major reason toxic releases are down, she said.

Methanol was the most-released chemical in 2002, at 3 million pounds, which was 0.6 million pounds less than in 2001. Methanol comes primarily from paper mills.

Paper and allied-products companies reported 7.7 million pounds of chemical releases. They were followed by electric-service industries, with 4.7 million pounds, and petroleum refineries, with 1.4 million pounds.

The three facilities with the highest amounts of releases in the state were Transalta Centralia Generation and Mining in Centralia, an electric service, with 4.6 million pounds; Weyerhaeuser in Longview, with 2.2 million pounds; and Boise Cascade Paper Division in Wallula, with 1 million pounds. The three facilities reported 40 percent of all releases.

More than 650 chemicals are identified in federal law as “toxic.” Ecology is particularly concerned about certain long-lasting substances, such as mercury, that build up in tissues.

WashPIRG compared the 2002 data on Washington companies to the amount of pollution the smelter’s operators told the Canadian government they put in the river that year. The results show the Trail smelter dumped 65 percent more lead, more than 100 times more arsenic and three times as much mercury as all Washington industries dumped into state waters.

Teck Cominco reported releasing 4,224 pounds of lead, 1,418 pounds of arsenic and 28 pounds of mercury into the Columbia River. The Ecology Department report showed Washington industries dumped 2,738 pounds of lead, 12 pounds of arsenic and 9 pounds of mercury into the state’s waters in total.

Teck Cominco officials did not return a telephone message from the Associated Press on Wednesday.