Idaho testing site for toxins

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is taking soil samples and has impounded unspecified materials from a Chilco, Idaho, property allegedly used as an illegal waste dump.

First District Judge Benjamin Simpson issued a warrant Wednesday that gives the state 10 days to investigate the property where truck drivers claim they hauled dozens of dump-truck loads of suspected toxic material such as old motor oil, diesel or sludge.

The land is likely atop the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer that supplies drinking water to more than 500,000 people.

“This investigation will continue until we have sufficient information to move forward,” said Marc Kalbaugh, DEQ’s site remediation manager. “Really, we are just on a fact-finding mission.”

Kalbaugh declined to specify Monday what types of materials were impounded from the property, which is about 10 miles north of Hayden at 1034 Chilco Road.

The DEQ hired Able Clean-up Technologies, of Spokane, to help with the investigation, and crews have been working since Wednesday. Kalbaugh said the work wasn’t complete and he couldn’t comment on potential contamination or illegal burying until the probe is concluded.

The agency was tipped off Feb. 13 when it received sworn statements from two truck drivers who claimed they hauled materials to the site in February 2006. The drivers claimed the material included 55-gallon drums of a dark, oily substance that was later buried at the site.

The landowner, Wayne Galland, insists nothing dirty was buried on his property. Galland didn’t return phone calls Monday but said in a previous interview that the claims were likely fueled by a long-standing dispute he has with one of the truck drivers, John Dean, of Coeur d’Alene. Dean recently lost a court battle with Galland and was ordered to pay him $4,570.

Kalbaugh said that Galland has been cooperative.

In a signed affidavit, Dean estimated at least 80 loads were hauled to the site. The loads mainly consisted of sand and dirt, but also included old auto parts, logging equipment, chains and the barrels of waste, he reported. The barrels were crushed before being loaded into the trucks, Dean said.

A sworn affidavit from another truck driver claims the drums contained what appeared to be “old motor oil, diesel or sludge. Some was very runny like solvent and some was rock hard like charcoal.”

After the barrels were crushed, the oil-soaked dirt and sand was hauled and dumped at the site, according to the drivers, who were working for Galland.

The drivers allege the material came from an old truck stop on the corner of Seltice Way and Huetter Road in Post Falls.

Kalbaugh said the property, which is just west of the Huetter intersection, is now used by Central Pre-Mix and was never a truck stop.

DEQ is not testing or investigating the Seltice Way property.

Kalbaugh said no other agencies, such as Kootenai County or the Panhandle Health District, are involved in the investigation.