News - Local News

POSTED: Monday, Dec. 01, 2008

Ecology adds 4 contaminated Whatcom County sites to list

Four local properties contaminated with motor oil and other petroleum substances are the latest to join the state Department of Ecology's list of hazardous sites in Whatcom County.

The sites all contain old fuel storage tanks or fuel systems that are posing environmental risks to the surrounding soil and potentially groundwater.

In the case of two of the recently added sites, petroleum products leaked into the soil from now-defunct fueling systems or storage tanks used by fuel companies. Soil samples taken from the properties - both located on Roeder Avenue on Port of Bellingham property - were found to be contaminated by fuel.

Port officials say they have been taking the necessary steps to test and clean up the sites since 2002.

"We identified the sites, found contamination and reported them to Department of Ecology, (which has) finally caught up with site hazard assessment," said Brian Gouran, the port's environmental site project manager.

The port is working on cleaning up the sites, hoping some of the fuel companies possibly responsible will pitch in with funding. Those include Northwest Fuel, Shell Oil Co. and Richfield Oil Co., according to port officials.

Ecology revises the hazardous sites list twice a year. It added four sites in Whatcom County and 41 throughout the state in August.

"We have 150 years of industrial legacy to clean up after, so if we have some sites that have some leaking fuel tanks from the 1930s, one by one they are getting approached," said Jeff Hegedus, environmental health supervisor for the Whatcom County Health Department.

The state ranks local sites on a scale of one to five, with one being the level of highest concern, based on the potential risk to people and the environment. Of the four sites added in Whatcom County, three were given a ranking of three and one was designated a five.

BNSF Railway owns the third site, located on the 2600 block of Roeder Avenue, an old underground fuel storage tank Ecology designated a five.

"We have installed a recovery system that is in operation at this time," said BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas in a company statement. "We are continuing to work on this matter with Ecology."

The fourth site - a 100-gallon underground fuel storage tank - is located on the 6700 block of North Star Road in Ferndale.

The tank was used during past farm operations on the property but has since been abandoned. Oil from the old tank has the potential to leak into the surrounding soil.

"When the gentleman bought the property he thought that it was cleaned up," said Charles Sullivan, an environmental specialist with the Whatcom County Health Department. "There's probably a small amount of contamination under the garage."

Currently, 59 contaminated sites have been ranked in Whatcom County, according to Ecology.