Minutes Heavy Metal Remediation Committee
1 March Meeting 2002

The HMRC met in the library. Present were May Gerstle, Steve Macdonald, Shaheeda 
Pierce, Lee Miller and Rita Schenck; All from Vashon.

The Feb.1, 2002 minutes were approved without modification.

The agenda was approved with the addition of the discussion of legislative strategy.

There was a discussion of the islandÕs needs assessment. IRPPC wants to participate in 
Public Health-Seattle King CountyÕs survey, using their technical consultant, but does not 
yet understand the scope of this task.. Steve will contact Bonnie to get a estimate of the 
cost of the proposed survey to evaluate the size of this task. Based on that information 
May will contact Sharon Nelson to assure Dow knows about the survey and can support 
it as necessary.

Steve provided an update on IRPCCÕs effort to get a technical consultant on board. They 
had a meeting for bidders, at which only two consultants showed. IRPPC intends to spend 
about 1/3 of their money this year and 2/3 next year (since this fiscal year is mostly over 
already). IRPPCÕs notes on the contractor meeting are attached.

Loren Dunn, an attorney representing The Washington Environmental Council, and a 
Vashon resident, is a member of the area-wide contamination task force. He has 
expressed interest in networking with us on the heavy metal issue. Emma Amiad is 
VashonÕs representative on the Tacoma Plume Smelter Advisory Group, a group of real 
estate people who are working on property issues. She, too, has expressed interest in 
working with HMRC.

The issue of CCA treated wood was brought up. Both initial purchase and ongoing 
maintenance need to be addressed. We decided to do outreach to lumberyards, 
contractors and architects. Lee will obtain a preliminary list of contractors and architects 
by next month. Rita will write up a fact sheet by next month. We will address off-island 
people and newspaper articles later.

The issue of medical monitoring, people leaving the island due to heavy metal exposure 
and related issues was discussed. Rita (with ShaheedaÕs help) has identified a person who 
is interested in helping us develop a fact sheet identifying the medical symptoms of 
exposure to the mix of heavy metals we have here. Rita will contact Jim Ruttenber to 
enlist his help by next month.

Legislative outreach will be important for supporting the two legislative issues that 
Senator Poulsen has initiated for us. May was assigned the tasks of identifying the key 
legislators in committee and on the floor who should be contacted when appropriate. She 
also will develop a list of volunteers who can be asked to call these legislators at the 
proper time, and write a brief email/script to instruct them at the proper time. Shaheeda 
volunteered to call at least 20 people when needed, and Rita will contact Senator 
PoulsenÕs office to identify how best to track progress of the bills so that we will know 
when to swing into action.

Respectfully submitted;
Rita Schenck


Summary of Vashon IRPPC RFP pre-proposal conference
28 February 2002

The meeting commenced at 7:30pm in the Vashon Land Trust building. Attendees were: 
Jim English, Lyman Houghton, Nan Hammett, and Steven Macdonald for IRPPC Board 
of Directors; and potential bidders Kathy Lester of Earthworks Environmental in Oak 
Harbor, and John Lillie of Kleinfelder in Bellevue. 

The IRPPC Board briefly described their individual interests, and Lester and Lillie briefly 
described their firms' activities.

The timeline for submission of proposals (13 March) and final determination of the 
award (22 March) was restated. 

The RFP was reviewed by section. A few aspects were amplified, to clarify what will be 
interpreted to be a responsive proposal. 
_ Many bullets, especially in the desirable elements section, do not contain detailed 
statements of how the task would be implemented. (The RFP comments 
"Applicants are encouraged to consider alternative means to accomplish stated 
IRPPC objectives. Innovative design of tasks in ways not yet envisioned is 
supported.") Implementation plans, such as for the website or telephone hotline, 
can be specified in the proposal. Alternatively, the proposal can more simply state 
that the technical consultant will work with IRPPC to specify implementation 
plans. Regardless, the proposal should contain task-specific budget requests. (The 
RFP comments "This RFP does not specify timelines and deadlines for listed 
activities and tasks. Applicants are encouraged to suggest proposed work 
schedules, and submit an itemized budget.")
_ The background for the fourth bullet in the desirable elements section was 
described. The original public participation grant (PPG) proposal submitted by 
IRPPC to Ecology asked for $60,000 per year for a two year project, and included 
a needs assessment survey to gauge the best ways to communicate with and 
involve island residents. The Ecology PPG award we received cut the budget to 
$25,000 per year for the two-year period, and required us to submit a revised 
budget. We cut the needs assessment survey (among other things), partly because 
we were given some assurance by Public Health - Seattle & King County 
(PHSKC) that they could take this on. Subsequently, budget problems in county 
government have stalled progress on this activity. More recently, there have been 
political changes in the County Council, which may be favorable; and, separately, 
Ecology has suggested to us that there may be supplemental PPG funding 
available this fiscal year. Though it is thus possible that funding may materialize 
for the needs assessment survey, it is entirely uncertain whether that will actually 
happen, or whether the activity would be lead by PHSKC or IRPPC. In that 
context, potential bidders are advised not to speculate, and to base their proposal 
solely on the wording in the RFP. Nonetheless, potential bidders are also advised 
that this bullet is now somewhat more important to IRPPC than the other bullets, 
as a result of recent events.
_ Due to delays in receipt of our PPG award, much of the period specified as our 
initial grant year has passed. The IRPPC Board has reviewed and revised its 
budget projections, and now anticipates that we will spend one-third of our total 
budget in the July 2001 to June 2002 fiscal year, and two-thirds of our total 
budget in the July 2002 to June 2003 fiscal year. We have also reviewed the 
relative value of the technical consultant contract, compared to other specified 
PPG activities, in light of our indication in the RFP that proposals can include 
more than the minimum three optional elements. Due to this, we have decided 
that we can fund technical consultant contracts in the range of $5,000 to $13,000 
for the first fiscal year. 
_ Potential bidders should construct the budget section of their proposals on the 
basis of a two-year project period, with a one-year budget period. A budget for the 
second year of the project is not required for this proposal. 

The meeting was adjourned in time (we hope) for the off-islanders to make the 8:55pm 
ferry.