Closed streets reopened, additional wells drilled in WW
By Dan Thesman on Friday, October 20th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
News release from city of Walla Walla
WALLA WALLA – On Thursday, with planned drilling in the right-of-way complete, 2nd Avenue and Rose Street were fully reopened to traffic.
Western States Drilling staff drilled two monitoring wells on the Chevron property, and another was drilled today. All planned wells are expected to be completed by the end of this week.
At the storm drain near 3rd Avenue and Rose Street where gasoline odor and sheen had been detected, Clean Harbors and Washington Department of Ecology staff utilized a camera from the City’s Street Division to locate where from the vapors could have traveled from.
Pipes from the storm drain were found to connect to the catch basin outside the west wall of the Marcus Whitman Hotel, where sheen and vapors were found before, as well as to rain gutters on the south side of the hotel. City Streets staff located the pipe on the site and confirmed its connection to the hotel’s gutters. The sheen is too low in the basin to reach the connecting pipe, but vapors were able to reach and travel along the pipe.
From its equipment in the parking lot of the 106 building, Clean Harbors resumed the discharge of filtered water to the municipal wastewater treatment system at about 15 gallons per minute.
Ventilation continues to mitigate volatile organic compounds from the affected buildings.
This update is based on information provided by Washington Department of Ecology. City staff will continue to provide these updates on the City website (https://www.wallawallawa.gov/gasoline) as we receive additional details.
Photo shows geologist examining core samples removed during the drilling of a monitoring well on the property of the Chevron station at 2nd and Rose, on Oct. 19, 2023. (Washington Department of Ecology)
