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Department of Ecology News Release - Oct. 27, 2003
03-207
OLYMPIA - Decades of pollution problems are finally going to be fixed, under a final cleanup agreement for the former Roderick Timber site in Junction City east of Aberdeen.
The cleanup agreement, or "consent decree," was signed Oct. 10 by the state Department of Ecology, the city of Aberdeen and the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority.
"This milestone is a positive step toward righting years and years of industrial pollution on the banks of the lower Chehalis River," said Rebecca Lawson, a toxic-cleanup manager for Ecology.
Along with the plan, the Ecology Department is sending $1.2 million to Aberdeen to help pay the cleanup bill.
Various past activities contributed to a mix of pollution problems on the nearly 300-acre site, named for a former property owner, Phillip Roderick, whose business went bankrupt in 1988.
Part of the site was used as a garbage dump in the 1950s and '60s. In the mid-1970s until 1988, Roderick ran a log-sort yard and a truck-maintenance shop on the property. Soils were contaminated by heavy equipment, by leaking underground storage tanks and by hazardous materials stored and used on the site.
The seaport authority bought 294 acres of the site in 1998 after the Roderick bankruptcy. Since then, Aberdeen and the seaport authority have worked with Ecology to clean the site.
The cleanup plan includes measures to protect neighbors and anybody who might walk onto the site, Lawson said. Shallow ground water from the site will be directed away from the neighborhood, even though the homes have been hooked up to an outside source of drinking water for some time. Also, the landfill area will be covered.
In the final plan, contaminated soil and sediment will be removed from the site, the landfill area will be capped with soil and vegetation, ground water will be monitored and vegetation will be planted.
The seaport authority will continue using the large metal building in the former maintenance area to build wooden ships and to train students in ship building and wood working. The seaport authority's Capt. Les Bolton said that much of the property will be kept in a natural state to serve as a buffer for flooding and to recapture the original environmental qualities of the lower Chehalis River.
A separate "voluntary" cleanup continues at the nearby Sierra Pacific Industries sawmill and power-generating plant.
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Contact: Sandy Howard, public information manager, 360-407-6239
Ecology's Web site: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/roderick/roderick_hp.htm
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
