News Releases Article
Port moves closer to clean up
Originally published in The Reflector, 02 January 2002. Reprinted with permission.
By Heidi Wallenborn
Port of Ridgefield officials are one step closer to ridding Lake River Industrial site of underground contamination, said Laurie Olin, director of operations for the Port.
Envirocon, Inc. of Portland was recently selected as the Port’s on-call remedial construction service provider, slated to begin work in early January.
"The Port is eager to begin the cleanup process at the industrial site," Olin said. "The selection of Envirocon puts us one step closer to beginning the steam extraction process."
Envirocon, Inc. will provide services such as excavation and demolition, as well as construction and installation of remediation system at the industria1 site.
Pacific Wood Treating Corp., a former tenant at the industrial site, contaminated more than 40 acres with wood treating chemicals from the 1960s until 1993 when the company declared bankruptcy, leaving behind a host of environmental problems.
Although the above ground contamination was removed, a soupy mass of pentachlorophenol, creosote, and copper-chromium-arsenate remains underground. The underground contamination is seeping toward the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, already contaminating the fringes of Carty Lake, say Port officials.
Steamtech Environmental.Services of Bakersfield,.CA. was selected to clean up the site using a steam extraction process.
Envirocon, Inc. officials will provide additional services during the project, including the demolition of existing buildings on the industrial site as well as assistance, with the installation and construction of steam extraction equipment.
Maul, Foster and Alongi, an environmental consulting company with offices in Vancouver and Seattle, will provide engineering oversight to the project.
The Cleanup is expected to cost more than $50 million over several years, paid for with federal and state grants.
