By Claudia Yaw
The Chronicle
A Chehalis construction company is expected to shell out millions in a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over chemical contamination of groundwater. The decades-long cleanup is one of the EPA’s national cleanup priorities and is still considered “not under control.”
The $3.25 million settlement will go to the EPA’s Superfund program to continue on-site cleanup efforts on the 21-acre contamination site at the intersection of Labree Road and Hamilton Road North in Chehalis.
Efforts began in the 1990s, when the chemical PCE, an industrial degreaser that likely causes cancer and kidney disease, was detected in a local well. Years later, more than 60 leaking drums of hazardous waste, including PCE, were found buried on the S.C. Breen Construction Company’s property in violation of state regulations.
The settlement only holds the company responsible for about half of the contamination site. The other half, where PCE was released directly into Berwick Creek, is south of the company’s property, and will cost the EPA more than $10 million to address. There’s no definitive evidence pointing to a responsible party, according to EPA remedial project manager Robert Tan.
Sterling Breen, S.C. Breen Construction Company’s vice president, declined to comment. Although the company filed with the state this year, company governor Virginia Breen said it’s no longer doing business. Sterling Breen now runs the Centralia-based rock and construction company Sterling Breen Crushing.
The EPA expects S.C. Breen Construction Company to agree to the settlement, as it is the result of a years-long negotiations, and will absolve the company of future liability for the contamination. In the early 2000s, the company also settled with the state Department of Ecology for $225,000.
According to Tan, the EPA took the lead in 2001 when the state’s Department of Ecology realized the severity of the contamination. In their emergency response, the EPA worked to get bottled water to residents whose private water sources were contaminated. They also connected those residents to the public water line, which is safe to drink. But individuals can still ingest or inhale PCE at Bewick Creek, and the contaminated groundwater could continue to flow northwest.
Groundwater contamination sites are especially difficult to address, Tan said. For years the EPA has been drilling holes 50 feet into the soil in order to detect PCE and understand the scope of the contamination.
“It’s kind of like trying to light up a room with a laser pointer in the dark,” Tan said, noting that the agency now has a good sense of where the boundaries of contamination lie.
The EPA is heating up the groundwater in order to remove and capture PCE south of the S.C. Breen property. They are also using bioremediation, where microbes are added to the soil to help break down toxins. They hope to reduce the contamination of that area by 95 percent before the end of 2023. An investigation and analysis is still needed for the S.C. Breen property before action is taken. According to Tan, that alone could take 4-5 years.
Regarding the settlement, the EPA is accepting public comments through the end of the month, which can be submitted at https://epa.gov/superfund/hamilton-labree.
According to a press release, the agency may modify or withdraw the settlement upon review of public comments.
