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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Sept. 1, 1998
98-152
Contact: Joye Redfield-Wilder, public information manager, (509)
575-2610
John Stormon, hydrogeologist, (509) 454-7293
YAKIMA - A proposal to control contaminants leaking from the Ryegrass Landfill in Kittitas County calls for the county to cap the landfill and build a collection and evaporation system at the solid-waste facility near Vantage.
Kittitas County, in cooperation with the state Department of Ecology, agreed to close the facility under the state's environmental cleanup law, the Model Toxics Control Act. Water percolating through the garbage has been found to contain such contaminants as arsenic, chromium, cyanide, lead and manganese.
"This proposal gives the county the opportunity to resolve contamination concerns that have plagued the facility for some time," said John Stormon, with Ecology's solid-waste program in Yakima. "Collecting and evaporating the contaminated water should take care of what's leaking from the landfill now, and prevent it from reaching surface water. In addition, capping the landfill will prevent rain and snow melt from absorbing into the landfill and causing more leaking in the future."
The county stopped accepting garbage at the landfill in December 1997. Contaminated water has been seeping from the landfill since 1996, Stormon said. Under the agreed order, the county has until this November to install the collection system and evaporation ponds. The landfill cover is required to be in place by November 1999.
Once the project is completed, the county will continue to monitor the site to determine if more work is needed to prevent the release of contamination. Grant funding for this project and future work will be available from the state.
A copy of the proposed agreed order for this interim action plan is available for public review at the Ellensburg Public Library, 209 N. Ruby, Ellensburg, and at Ecology's central regional office, 15 W. Yakima Ave., Suite 200, Yakima. People have until Oct. 1 to comment on the proposal.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
