Comment sought for water source
SPOKANE - The public has a month to review and comment on plans to clean up contamination at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Parkwater Railyard site a half mile south of the Spokane River at 5302 E. Trent Ave.
The facility, formerly known as Yardley, lies over the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie aquifer, the region's drinking water source.
The property in Spokane covers about 130 acres that have been used as a rail yard for nearly 100 years. Operations continue today, including fueling, intermodal operations and switching rail cars.
Past investigations confirmed that contaminants exceeded state standards in seven of 10 areas studied. Some of the contaminants include petroleum hydrocarbons, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, naphthalene, and methylene chloride.
The draft documents that pertain to this cleanup include the draft cleanup action plan, which explains the selection of a cleanup approach, and the State Environmental Policy Act that requires government agencies to consider potential environmental effects of a project before beginning the cleanup. The deadline for comments on the documents is Oct. 31.
"Cleaning up this site will help protect the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which provides drinking water to about 600,000 residents," said site manager Sandra Treccani, with the Department of Ecology's Toxics Cleanup Program in Spokane. "The actions we take there will reduce the possibility of people being exposed to the toxic contaminants."
Ecology selected a cleanup alternative that involves a combination of removing contaminated soil and replacing it with clean soil in several locations, and placing a 6-inch cap of gravel over remaining contaminated soil. Contractors will continue to treat groundwater by extracting and treating vapors from below ground to address both contaminated groundwater and deeper contaminated soils.
The documents can be reviewed at Ecology's Spokane office at 4601 N. Monroe St. by contacting Kari Johnson for an appointment at (509) 329-3415. They are also available at the Spokane County Library, 4322 N. Argonne St, and online at https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/gsp/Sitepage.aspx?csid=1318.
Submit Comments and Technical Questions to Sandra Treccani, site manager, Washington Department of Ecology, 4601 N. Monroe St., Spokane, WA 99205-1295, (509) 329-3412, or by email at Sandra.Treccani@ecy.wa.gov.