PORT TAKES ACTION TO SPEED GROUNDWATER CLEANUP IN FRUIT VALLEY (7/16/08)

For Immediate Release

VANCOUVER, Wash. - – Having already cleaned up a significant amount of solvents in the groundwater below property in Fruit Valley, the Port of Vancouver, Department of Ecology are embarking on a program to accelerate the ultimate clean up.

Port of Vancouver Executive Director Larry Paulson announced today that the port will be installing a pump-and-treat system to remove the solvent contamination from previous owners in an aquifer below Fruit Valley industrial and residential lands, where contamination was discovered in the late 1990s.

The port has already spent $13 million, and anticipates it will spend another $21 million to finish the cleanup. The Washington Department of Ecology has given the port a total of $6.3 million to assist with funding the cleanup.

Since the cleanup started, the port has removed and treated 14,000 cubic yards of soil from the former Swan Manufacturing site. A second source of contamination is located on the Cadet Manufacturing property, where three remediation systems have been put in place on the site. The port purchased property at Cadet Manufacturing in 2006, and took control of the cleanup activities.

The port has been working in partnership with the state’s Department of Ecology and Department of Health to get the clean up done. The port also is cooperating with Clark Public Utilities and the City of Vancouver, which have interests in providing clean, safe drinking water to the public.

A pump-and-treat system will be installed that will pump water from the aquifer, clean it by passing the water through air-stripping towers, which will take the solvent contamination from the water, and discharge the clean water.
                                           
The first unit of the system consists of one pumping well and one air stripper. The entire system will be big enough to accommodate two to three wells.

“We want to do everything we can to give our neighbors and industrial tenants a clean aquifer as quickly as possible,” Paulson said. “What we’re going to do here is a very proven method. Once we turn it on, it will instantly start reducing the solvent concentration in the groundwater.”

The pumping rate of one unit, to start, is 1,500 gallons per minute and will be built with enough flexibility to add more wells and expand to 5,000-6,000 gallons per minute.

“Actions that are already complete have reduced groundwater, soil and vapor concentrations in the air,” said the port’s Director of Environmental Services Patty Boyden. “We’ll continue to collect data to confirm that the cleanup is effective in reducing concentrations.”

The Washington State Department of Ecology has provided the port with grant money to help with the cleanup, and the groundwater effort is one of the department’s top priorities in terms of cleanups.

“We’re appreciative, and proud, of our partnership with Ecology,” Paulson said. “We wouldn’t be as far as we are in this groundwater cleanup as we are without the partnership.

“We have already done a lot to clean things up,” he said. “This initiative really accelerates the completion of the project.”

Since the mid-1990s the Port of Vancouver has returned 55 acres of contaminated sites to productive industrial lands for use by tenants such as Pacific Coast Shredding, TriStar Transload PNW, Columbia River Sand and Gravel, and Marine Terminals Corporation. These tenants bring family wage jobs to our community.

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The Port of Vancouver, USA, created by Clark County taxpayers in 1912, is one of the major ports on the Pacific Coast. Its competitive strengths include available land, versatile cargo handling capabilities, vast transportation networks, a dependable labor force and an exceptional level of service to its customers and community.

- POV -