Quincy Pollution Report Set
Quincy-area residents next week will hear about the extent of pollution and possible cleanup efforts when ag-retailer Cenex Supply and Marketing and the Washington State Department of Ecology discuss test results from the Cenex-owned site in the town.
The land, less than half an acre which Cenex bought from another agricultural product supplier 15 years ago, is tainted with herbicides and pesticides.
“It was probably mismanaged before they bought it,” said Ed Hares, hydrogeologist for the Washington State Department of Ecology. “Let’s just say with the past practices, we can look back and say they were wrong.”
The strip of land, bordered by train tracks and by a city street, contained a 30,000 gallon pond to store chemical residue washed from field equipment. Apparently the cement-lined pond leaked. Also, a few thousand gallons of fumigant stored at the site leaked into the ground in the early 1980s, Hares said.
“Now there’s a contaminated plume of groundwater that apparently travels off-site, though we don’t know where,” he said. “No one we know uses it for drinking water.”
Still, many in the community have voiced concern about the site, particularly since it’s close to two schools and the groundwater plume flows across high school property.
“They have had some health concerns,” said Charlotte Blanchard, environmental health specialist with the Grant County Health District. “The local community felt there was a higher incidence of tumors or spontaneous abortions.” But a state epidemiologist’s studies of medical reports and death certificates did not show a higher incidence of those things in Quincy than elsewhere in the state, she said.
About 15 people have contacted the county health district to express concerns about the site. “It’s not a terribly large group,” Blanchard said. “But it’s also not a very big community.”
This summer, state officials and Cenex studied the site, dug wells, took soil samples and tested the groundwater. The company will present its findings to the community next Tuesday.
“We want to get people’s questions answered,” said Pete Mutschler, a compliance specialist with Cenex who is directing the clean-up effort. “The purpose of the meeting is to hear their concerns.”
More than 200 people attended a meeting about the site last spring. “They just wanted to hear what was going on,” Hares said.
The next step will be to look at ways of cleaning up the area.
“It’s probably not a serious problem of anyone actually consuming the drinking water,” Hares said. “But there’s potential for it to contaminate lower aquifers and that’s incentive for cleaning it up.”
Hares said he expects the clean-up to be complete next summer.
The open-house meeting for the community will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Quincy Community Center.
, DataTimes