Supports Filtration
Dear Editor: In 1991, the USEPA determined that high levels of 2,3,7,8 TCDD DIOXIN were present in the sediments of Sitka’s Blue Lake water supply. The dioxins in the lake sediments were determined to be deposited by airborne fly-ash from the power-boilers at Sitka’s Alaska Pulp Corporation pulp mill. These sediments actually contained HIGHER levels of dioxin than the USEPA found in Sawmill Cove, the site where the Alaska Pulp Corporation mill wastewater effluent (which sometimes included liquified fly-ash), was discharged directly into Silver Bay.
See page 14 of: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/9100YT3E.PDF?Dockey=9100YT3E.PDF.
The basic problem facing us now, is that by increasing the height of the Blue Lake Dam, this has caused higher “turbidity levels” (cloudy water) through changes to the lake’s hydrology (mass movements of water) in Blue Lake itself. This turbidity is caused by run-off, and bottom sediments becoming stirred-up by wind and wave action, and then becoming colloidally suspended in ALL water that goes out of Blue Lake.
https://www.kcaw.org/2018/12/12/assembly-gives-go-ahead-for-blue-lake-water-filtration-plant/.
Dioxin accumulates in the human body at the same rate that it is ingested. Every molecule of dioxin that a person swallows is permanently stored within their body fat; every glass of Sitka’s water they drink, only adds more. Dioxin is a carcinogen and mutagen; it also causes neurological problems. It causes many types of soft-tissue cancer, as well as harmfully affecting the human reproductive cycle, as well as human fetal development. Dioxin is considered by the USEPA to be one of the most toxic substances on our planet.
https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/wastemin/web/pdf/dioxfura.pdf.
Dioxin was not directly detected in our drinking water in 1990, because the methods the USEPA used to gather and analyse water samples were much too basic to detect dangerous, and possibly illegal levels of dioxin. Newer, more restrictive USEPA limits on dioxin exposure require more advanced methods of testing than were previously available. The maximum allowable level of dioxin that the USEPA allows in drinking water is now 30 ppq (30 parts per quadrillion) or (30 parts per 1,000,000,000,000,000).
With the installation and operation of Sitka’s proposed part-time filter plant, the Blue Lake sediments will now be captured and concentrated at the new water filter plant. Direct analysis of the sediment will now become possible.
... Our biggest problem is that the proposed water filter plant is only a half-measure. In the interest of public health and safety, shouldn’t the drinking water of Sitka be REQUIRED by the public, to be filtered FULL TIME, with a FULL-SIZE water filter plant, in order to remove these dioxin-contaminated sediments? Shouldn’t the captured sediment be FULLY analysed, to put this public health issue to rest?
See: https://www.ktoo.org/2018/ 12/10/sitka-officials-make-the-case-for-a-secondary-water-source/.
I recently came across the link below on the Internet. It outlines a newer, more precise and effective form of water collection and analysis than the USEPA used in Sitka.
See: https://acwi.gov/monitoring/conference/98proceedings/Papers/25-DINK.html.
If the reader goes to the Daily Sitka Sentinel’s internet site, and clicks on the above links, they will be directed to research information; or, cut and paste the links into your browser.
If you would like to discuss, want or wish to provide further information on this subject, my email address is:
zerocutster@gmail.com.
My telephone number is: (907)738- 8466.
Florian Sever, Sitka
