Port reconsiders bad dumping plan

Yesterday I condemned a Port of Seattle plan to dump a ton of toxic waste (contaminated with PCBs) right into Elliott Bay after the Seattle P-I reported on the proposal. Well, earlier today, the Port Commission decided to reconsider:

PCB-contaminated mud dredged from a Superfund site may be headed to a landfill rather than being dumped into the open waters of Elliott Bay as planned.

Port of Seattle commissioners unanimously directed their staff Tuesday to work with King County on a proposal to send the material from a dredging project in the Harbor Island Superfund site to a landfill.

The project had cleared the environmental hurdles set for it by federal and state agencies, but environmentalists -- with support from the state's newly formed Puget Sound Partnership, King County Executive Ron Sims and various scientists within the state's Department of Ecology and Department of Fish and Wildlife -- said the current momentum toward a cleaner Puget Sound calls for higher standards.

This is heartening news. As David Dicks, the Executive Director of the Puget Sound Partnership, said in applauding the move:

The Port Commission's decision demonstrates a commitment to environmental stewardship and is the type of 'above and beyond' action that will help us achieve our goal of a healthy Puget Sound by 2020...The success of the Puget Sound Partnership will depend on the willingness and ability of governmental and private entities to take actions that will benefit Puget Sound. The Port Commission has provided us with a model of how to do this.

Perhaps Alec Fisken says it best: "If we are going to err, we want to err on the side of a cleaner Puget Sound." I say this decision was a no-brainer, but I'm still cheered by the Port's action.