A version of this story was originally published in the Fall 2014 UW SRP eBulletin.
The Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition (NWTCC) will host a webinar on November 19th entitled "How do our Contaminated Cleanup Sites Compare?" The webinar will be conducted by Dr. Peter L. deFur, president of Environmental Stewardship Concepts. Dr. deFur is meeting with community groups at their cleanup sites in EPA Region 10. His webinar will draw comparisons of regional cleanup sites on which he is working – types of contaminants, cleanup plans, and alternative cleanup options. This initiative by the Northwest Toxic Communities Coalition directly addresses an area central to the mission of the organization - “to connect with and empower communities impacted by toxic waste and to share resources, information, and support for toxic cleanup efforts throughout the Northwest states.” The proposed webinar will bring together regional members working on both Superfund and other hazardous waste site cleanups. It builds upon previous successful activities conducted by the coalition over past years.
The NWTCC was successful in obtaining funding from the Seattle-based 'Horizons Foundation'. This grant provided travel support for Coalition members to attend a Coalition Annual Summit in Fall 2013. Earlier this year, the NWTCC also received support from both 'The Rose Foundation' and the 'Horizons Foundation' to meet requests for assistance in public education and community engagement related to the use of land-spreading of contaminated sewage sludge as compost/fertilizer for farm and forest soils and for growing food. One product of the funding is an educational flyer. The immediate goal of this material is to inform the public of this practice and to urge people to ask grocers if their food is grown in sewage sludge containing soils and to ask nurseries if the compost/fertilizer/soil amendments contain sewage sludge.