First, the bad news: A scheduled autumn cleanup of the highly polluted Slip 4 area of the Lower Duwamish Waterway looks like it will be put on indefinite hold, what with the recent discovery of more PCBs draining into the slip.

Now, the good: If the cleanup is delayed and the PCB source properly addressed, those steps could fend off a future recontamination of the site.

The PCBs — commercially produced organic compounds banned in the ’70s — were recently detected in stormwater drains leading into Slip 4, an inlet finger on the eastern shore of the Duwamish that extends into the Georgetown neighborhood. According to a letter penned by the state Department of Ecology (DOE) to the EPA, the sources of the contaminants have been traced to the north end of Boeing Field, which is separated from the slip by East Marginal Way.

DOE source control project manager Dan Cargill says the carcinogens were found in traps that had been set up to collect storm drain solids four separate times since August 2005. At their highest concentrations, during the second round of testing, Cargill says that PCB concentrations were found to be 800 parts per million (ppm). A soil sample also produced a sample of 1,500 ppm, he says.

Ten ppm are considered safe levels for humans on an industrial site.

But whether or not these concentrations would wash themselves into the Duwamish at the same levels as discovered in the drains and soil, he says, is difficult to determine, as is pinpointing the exact source of contamination. “We’re talking about miles of stormdrain lines here,” says Cargil. “It’s going to take a while [to figure out.]”

In its initial design phase, the cleanup would have dredged close to 4,300 cubic yards of sediment, excavated 9,700 cubic yards of sediment and soil, and removed 500 tons of asphalt, creosote-treated timbers, and pilings. After being placed in an approved landfill, 3.6 acres of the slip were to be capped to isolate any contaminants that might have been escaped. The city and county, in an agreement with the EPA, had estimated that cleanup would set them back close to $7.4 million. The DOE letter means the EPA will have to reexamine whether the cleanup can go ahead as planned or undergo revision.

BJ Cummings, coordinator of the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, says that while finding more PCBs may not be the information her group was hoping for, it represents a chance to truly keep the slip free from being repoisoned.

“The good news is that this time, [contaminating] sources were found before the clean up was done,” says Cummings. “I guess were making some kind of progress.”

Results from additional investigations will be presented in a public meeting scheduled for March.

—Rosette Royale

WTO: mixed victory

On Jan. 30, the jury for the WTO class action lawsuit handed down a mixed decision, saying the city of Seattle violated the Fourth Amendment rights of 175 protestors in Westlake Park on Dec. 1, 1999, while maintaining the protestors’ freedom of speech rights were not violated. The jury voted that the city had illegally arrested the protestors, who were seated in the middle of what had been declared a “protest free zone,” because police had not attempted to discern if the protestors met any of the conditions that would allow them to remain in the zone. Such conditions include being a resident, business owner, employee, or shopper.

The case was brought by the protestors hoping to show their First Amendment rights had been violated, thus changing the way that protestors could be removed from the heat of protest and then held in a containment facility. Many of the protestors were held three days at Sand Point Naval Station, an impromptu facility.

The protestors, nevertheless, see this as a win.

“The key point, the lesson learned, is you cannot arrest peaceful protesters here in Seattle or anywhere else in the country,” said Kenneth Hankin, a Boeing employee and the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

—Chris Miller

Resolving a conflict

Shimon Katz was a 19-year-old officer in an elite combat unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, training younger soldiers in hand-to-hand combat and weaponry.

Now 29, he’s a soldier for peace, part of a band founded by Palestinian Sulaiman Al Hamri, who has also sworn off violence as a means of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Katz and Al Hamri will be in Seattle Feb. 8-9 to speak about their experiences moving from warfare to nonviolence. Both are members of Combatants for Peace, a two-year-old bi-national coalition that seeks a peaceful means of establishing an independent Palestine and thereby bringing a close to the suicide bombings, military incursions, and regional hatred that characterize relations between Israelis and their Arab neighbors.

Al Hamri spent more than four years in Israeli prisons for his involvement in anti-occupation protests and demonstrations. Their three-event stop is part of a West Coast tour of college campuses and community halls to educate the public on the consequences of violence — “the last option, after all the other options have failed,” says Katz, who, after ending his four years of active duty in the military, traveled to India, spent time in solitude and meditation, and read the writings of the Dalai Lama. “The consequences of [violence] are so bad, this is the last thing you want to do.”

Katz says Palestinian autonomy is in Israel’s best interest. He and other Israeli peace activists believe so “not because we are self-hating or love the other side; we think the future of Israelis will be much better if we cooperate in creating a Palestinian state.”

The two speak about their efforts at reconciliation in a public presentation 7 p.m. Thurs., Feb. 8, at Seattle University’s Schafer Auditorium. The next day, Fri., Feb. 9, they’ll be presenting at an interfaith breakfast for Temple De Hirsch Sinai at 8 a.m. That evening, there’s a discussion and dessert reception with the pair at Hillel at the University of Washington, 4745 17th Avenue NE. This event is open to the public; for more information, call (206) 527-1997 or visit www.hilleluw.org.

To learn more about Combatants for Peace, see www.combatantsforpeace.org.

—Adam Hyla