Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Palouse Brownfields environmental cleanup site has drawn interest from three separate entities in recent months. The project is a Main Street lot along the North Fork of the Palouse River.
Formerly the location of a welding shop, gas station and fuel storage facility, the building was torn down in 2012. It has since been tested for petroleum and manganese as part of a state Department of Ecology (DOE) program.
A conference call was held Tuesday, Dec. 19, in Palouse with interested parties and Sandra Treccani, hydrogeologist for DOE, along with Palouse Clerk-Treasurer Kyle Dixon and city council representatives Mike Hicks and Bob Stout.
“Two of the parties have shown great interest of late,” said Mayor Michael Echanove.
The site has been monitored by three test wells – two by the riverbank and one near the sidewalk.
“We’ve seen dramatic levels of reduction,” said Michael Stringer, project manager at Seattle for the firm Maul Foster Alongi, the city’s consultants on the work.
Possible development for the city-owned quarter-acre lot may include one of four types identified in a 2011 community meeting before the cleanup; urban housing, urban housing with retail on bottom and housing above, light industrial or senior assisted living.
“What we want is a long-term plan that pays us back in property taxes, employment or business opportunities or housing opportunities,” Echanove said.
The approximate $1 million cleanup included three test wells at the site – 15 feet deep – which are monitored by DOE. Of the three, two have reached the state-mandated cleanup level. Once the third one meets the standard, the project will be taken off the state’s Brownfields list.
The threshold that DOE requires is less than 500 micrograms of petroleum/manganese per liter.
“That’s parts per billion,” said Stringer.
Redevelopment would be permitted with the wells on site, as testing of the third well continues.
“The levels are very low, there is clean soil on top,” Stringer said.
If the third well continues not to reach the less than 500 micrograms per liter, then protocol exists for the city to negotiate with the DOE, using data to show that the levels are stable.
After contaminants and eight feet of dirt was dug out at the Palouse site in 2012, oxygen-releasing compounds were laid into the soil to help bacteria grow. In turn, the bacteria breaks down oil residues.
Soil samples were taken quarterly for the first four years and are now spaced out yearly as needed.
The project is funded by a combination of 2009 federal stimulus funds and grants from the DOE and the Department of Commerce.
Is the site fully eligible to be developed, then?
“They could break ground tomorrow, if they wanted,” Echanove said. “They just need to know the rules of engagement.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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