Superfund cleanup winds down
By Terry Murry on Thursday, June 30th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PASCO – After more than 30 years of environmental investigation and cleanup, the Washington State Department of Ecology has removed more than 35,000 drums of industrial waste from the Pasco landfill superfund site. The cleanup will end releases of hazardous substances to soil and groundwater from industrial waste that was buried 50 years ago.
“Bringing this decades-long cleanup to a close is a pivotal and encouraging moment for the community,” said Jeremy Schmidt, Ecology’s Pasco landfill site manager. “Safe removal of the drums permanently eliminates long-term environmental risk to communities in Franklin County and the city of Pasco.”
Cleanup activities at the Pasco landfill began in the early 2000s, and significant work has been completed at several industrial waste zones and municipal solid waste disposal areas within the site. All drums were removed by last month. In total, about 23,500 tons of waste were safely removed and hauled to facilities designed to dispose of hazardous materials in Arlington and Grand View, Idaho.
The removal work is being followed by thermal treatment of the remaining contaminated soil located below the former drum repository. The thermal treatment system design is underway, and treatment is anticipated to begin in 2023.
The site will continue to be restricted with fences, signs, and limitations on how the property is used. Groundwater monitoring and the maintenance of landfill covers will continue beyond the completion of active cleanup. The groundwater protection area around part of east Pasco will stay in place until the Washington State Department of Ecology determines it is no longer necessary.
The landfill is located less than 2 miles northeast of Pasco’s city limits and covers nearly 200 acres. The landfill opened in 1958 and waste was burned in trenches until 1971, when the site became a sanitary landfill. From 1972 to 1975, the landfill accepted industrial waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency added the site to the national priorities list in 1990. Ecology took over responsibility in 1991, and the landfill closed in 2001. Ongoing cleanup over the past two decades has reduced groundwater contamination at the landfill property and in off-property areas, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology.
