Divers located toxic barrels in Wallowa Lake

READ THE STORY

JOSEPH — It wasn't just an ordinary dive for Lisa Anderson and William Lambert, who always go looking for items in the bottom of Wallowa Lake. This one just happened to be a little different.

Anderson and Lambert, members of Blue Mountain Divers, a nonprofit scuba diving organization that seeks to find, recover, and preserve historic and archeological objects that are now at the bottoms of lakes and rivers, were scuba diving in the south end of Wallowa Lake near the marina in August 2018 where the water deepens abruptly. Working at depths of 50 to 120 feet, where the water deepens abruptly just north of the marina, they found a metal milk jug, and a couple of other odds and ends.

Then the duo saw the barrels.

They bore labels that said "2, 4-D or 2, 4, 5-T WEED KILLER."

 “There were about 25, 55-gallon drums, and a dozen bigger 100-gallon barrels,” said Blue Mountain Divers member Lisa Anderson. “It looked as though they had been there for a while — 10, 20 years or more. The smaller drums were corroded, and whatever was in them had probably already leaked out. But the big ones were sturdier. They seemed to be intact.”

“There were about 25, 55-gallon drums, and a dozen bigger 100-gallon barrels,” said Blue Mountain Divers member Lisa Anderson. “It looked as though they had been there for a while — 10, 20 years or more. The smaller drums were corroded, and whatever was in them had probably already leaked out. But the big ones were sturdier. They seemed to be intact.”

Lambert and Anderson ended their dive, and once home in Walla Walla, contacted the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The report the Blue Mountain Divers filed included photographs and videos of one of the 55-gallon barrels, showing the label.

Their report also noted that they did not know whether the barrels were full or empty, or how long they had been in the lake. But what alarmed them was that “the ingredients in 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T were nearly identical to the infamous Agent Orange, and also a known carcinogen,” Blue Mountain Divers said in their report.

Wallowa Lake is the primary source of drinking water for Joseph.