Ecology Invites Comments on Bremerton Cleanup Plan (USA)

The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) will accept public comments from July 23 to Aug. 24, 2012, on these draft documents:

A second legal agreement, called an agreed order, between Ecology and the city of Bremerton, which owns the site. The agreement describes the actions the city will take, including cleanup work and groundwater monitoring. The agreed order includes a city-prepared draft remedial investigation and feasibility study, which explains the work needed to look for and analyze contamination. The parties will use that information to create a draft cleanup action plan that will identify a preferred cleanup option.

An updated public participation plan, which details how Ecology will inform the public of the cleanup process for the site and how people can be involved.

The Chevron Tank Farm site is located along the Port Washington Narrows at 1310 Highland Ave., next to Evergreen Rotary Park. A bulk fuel tank farm operated there from 1946 to 1988. While the facility was operating, underground diesel and gasoline fuel pipes leaked and caused underground contamination. The contamination was discovered in 1988. The surface structures at the site had already been removed.

Contamination at the site includes total petroleum hydrocarbons from gasoline and diesel; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); and benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylenes.

The city bought the property in 2005 and signed the first agreed order with Ecology in 2007. Starting in 2008, an interim cleanup action targeted contamination at the site. The work included digging up and removing soil from the site’s upper area and using in-place chemical treatment for soils in the lower area. That work, which ended in 2011, cleaned up the majority of contamination at the site.

Groundwater is expected to recover naturally and meet state cleanup standards after five years.

The property currently is vacant but the city plans to include it in the development of Evergreen Rotary Park.

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Dredging Today Staff, July 20, 2012; Image: greylockenv