Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The City of Palouse now has five members for its Brownfields site redevelopment committee with a first meeting scheduled for this week.
The group will first look to put together a call for Request for Proposals (RFP) to seek responses from interested developers for the Main Street lot cleared for development along the Palouse River.
Formerly the location of a welding shop, gas station and fuel storage facility, the building on the lot was torn down in 2012. It has since been tested for petroleum and manganese as part of a state Department of Ecology program.
Several parties have expressed interest in the site which is located next to the former Bagott Motors site.
A conference call with the interested parties included Sandra Treccani, hydrogeologist for DOE, Palouse Clerk-Treasurer Kyle Dixon and city council members Mike Hicks and Bob Stout.
In the past five years, the Palouse cleanup site has been monitored by three test wells, two by the North Palouse riverbank and one near the sidewalk.
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.
The approximate $1 million Brownfields project includes the three 15-feet deep test wells. Two have reached the state-mandated cleanup level. Once the third one reaches the standard, the project will be taken off the Brownfields list and cleared for development.
A potential project could be permitted as testing at the third continues.
If the last well continues not to reach the point of 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.
In 2012, after contaminants and eight feet of dirt were dug out at the site, oxygen-releasing compounds were laid into the soil to help bacteria grow and break down oil residues.
Soil samples were taken quarterly for the first four years, and are now done annually.
The Palouse Brownfields project was funded by a combination of 2009 federal stimulus funds and grants from the DOE and the Department of Commerce.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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