NORTHPORT, Wash. – The town of Northport is nestled on the banks of the Upper Columbia River, just a few miles south of the Canadian border. And for many of the people who live here, it’s been home for generations.
“My great grandparents and grandparents and parents and now my brother and I live here. And so, yeah, there’s a legacy here with our family,” said Northport resident Rose Kalamarides.
The same is true for the people of the Colville Confederated Tribes.
“The tribes have lived on this river, they’ve conducted ceremonies on this river, they’ve fished the river. Basically, the river has been our lifeline,” explained Cindy Marchand, the secretary of the Colville Confederated Tribes Business Council Executive Committee.
But for decades, the people here have been suffering from abnormally high rates of a host of different health issues. According to community health surveys in Northport, 4% of residents have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, more than 1,300 times the national average. 6% have Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease, 1,000 times above average. And in 2011, 22% of Northport residents said they suffered from some type of cancer.
“What makes our situation, I think, unique is there’s a cluster here,” said Kalamarides, who has Ulcerative Colitis and had her colon removed.
Later, these same health issues started showing up in some of their children.
“When my kids started getting Crohn’s and M.S., It just broke me. It was really hard,” said Julie Sowards, who has Crohn’s Disease and M.S. herself.
But where do all these issues come from? While there’s no way to prove it, the people here all point seven miles up the river to the Teck smelter in Trail, B.C.
From 1906 to 1996, Teck dumped 450 tons of slag a day into the Columbia River. Slag is a solid discharge made up of heavy metal toxins. And it all carried downstream, across the border, to Northport.
The EPA believes at least 13,000,000 tons of slag went into the river and Teck released even more pollutants into the air. That’s lead, zinc, cadmium and selenium in the water system and in the soils.
The Colville Tribes first petitioned the EPA to list the Upper Columbia River on its Superfund National Priorities List in 1998. And more than a quarter century later, it finally happened on December 13.
“By adding a site to the National Priorities List, we guarantee the EPA will be involved with this project through the end. Through the end of the clean up,” explained Bonnie Arthur, an EPA project manager for the Upper Columbia.
And it’s not just the river that will be cleaned up. At least 200 residential properties where there’s a risk to human health will be cleaned up as well.
“We do know that there’s unacceptable risk on these properties that are likely going to entail some type of clean up,” said Robert Tan, another EPA project manager for the Upper Columbia. “So, the listing, where we’re at in the process, recognizes that and provides us access to those resources.”
The EPA’s main goal is to protect people, especially young children, from lead contamination in the soils near their homes. The EPA also admits aerial emissions are the cause of the lead contamination, which is why people in Northport are pushing for more air quality monitors as part of the Superfund designation.
“I think to understand how it impacts the area, because I’ve got a grandkid that’s going to be born in March and I’d really like them to come home and, yeah, breath clean air,” said Kalamarides.
For so many who live here, they say the damage is already done. For the Colville Tribes, the Superfund designation is better late than never.
“The tribes will continue to live on this river at least seven generations outs, so it’s very important that this clean-up is done right. That it’s done according to EPA laws,” said Marchand.
And for the people of Northport, many who have fought for this while suffering for so long, their thoughts are also on the future, preserving the place they call home and protecting the people they love.
“I want it to happen for my kids,” said Sowards. “I want it to happen for my kids’ kids. The people who live here are special people.”
“If we can leave a cleaner place for the people, the next generation and the generations after, then I wouldn’t mind that legacy,” added Matt Wolohan, the former chairman for the Citizens for Clean Columbia.
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