Proposed Wood Plant Raises Fears For Aquifer

A wood treatment company’s plans to build a plant just northwest of Post Falls has the Panhandle Health District worried about contamination of the aquifer.

But company officials say their plants are safe for the environment and point out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency used the company’s Tacoma plant as a good example in a training video.

The health district submitted two letters to the Kootenai County Planning Department on Thursday opposing a zone change the company - McFarland Cascade - would need to operate.

The chemicals the company would use could contaminate the Rathdrum aquifer, the letters from the health district say.

“The porosity of the soils and the proximity to the Hauser recharge sump (a natural recharge path to the aquifer) make this site one of the most vulnerable sections of an aquifer which is already very susceptible to contamination,” Ken Lustig, environmental health director for the health district, wrote in one of the letters.

While the main chemical McFarland Cascade plans to use to preserve wood is a known toxin, the company says its operations are clean and the precautions it takes should prevent seepage into the area’s main water source.

“We’re as concerned with the aquifer as anybody,” said Les Lonning, a manager for the company’s technical and environmental affairs.

“We’re anticipating building an environmentally sound facility that will meet all the regulations.”

McFarland Cascade has requested that the county rezone 108 acres at the southeast corner of Prairie Avenue and Pleasant View Road from agriculture to industrial. It is also asking for a conditional use permit to store more than 20,000 gallons of a chemical used in wood preservation - pentachlorophenol - above ground.

Pentachlorophenol, commonly referred to as “penta,” is extremely toxic when ingested or inhaled, according to the EPA. Ingestion of the chemical can cause lung, liver and kidney damage and death, according to the Merck Index, a reference book of chemicals.

It’s penta that the health district is worried about.

“It does not appear that the Health District could accept your proposal as presented because some of the pentachlorophenol oil mixture used to treat the telephone poles would be released from the site,” Shireene Hale, a senior environmental health specialist for the health district, wrote to the company.

The safeguards the company has explained to the health district so far are insufficient, Hale said, because the plant would contain most but not all of the chemicals or wastewater it would create.

“As long as they’re discharging some of the chemicals over the aquifer, they’re not going to meet our critical materials regulation,” she said. “There are quite a few Superfund sites from old treatment plants.”

McFarland Cascade has only discussed conceptual plans with Panhandle Health, Lonning said. It would make sure any final plans would meet the health district’s regulations, he said.

The company plans to use a variety of safeguards to prevent any environmental contamination. For example, it would have an EPA-mandated leak detection system that includes a liner and concrete for the area where treated wood would dry. It also would have a concrete container in which tanks containing the wood preservative would be stored. The container would be large enough to contain 110 percent of the chemicals in the tanks, Lonning said.

The treatment plant would be paved and all stormwater and wastewater would be collected and treated on-site, he said.

The company would design the plant to meet all Panhandle Health, Division of Environmental Quality and EPA regulations, Lonning said.

A public hearing on the zone change has been scheduled for May 11 at 6 p.m. in meeting room 1 of the county administration building.

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This sidebar appeared with the story: ZONE CHANGE McFarland Cascade, a wood treatment company, has requested that Kootenai County rezone 108 acres near Post Falls at the southeast corner of Prairie Avenue and Pleasant View Road from agriculture to industrial.