the film forum library tutorial contact

Cleanup Order Review Set by Staff Capital Press, July 25, 2003

SPOKANE -- The public has an opportunity over the next month to review and comment on a proposed legal agreement that will result in the cleanup of pesticide and fertilizer chemicals at the Western Farm Services site north of Pasco.

The Washington state Department of Ecology is proposing to enter into an agreed order with Western Farm Service Inc. and Crop Production Services Inc., which are both divisions of Agrium.

Under the agreement, pesticide contamination will be cleaned up from soil and water beneath the WFS facility, formerly PureGro, on Glade Road.

WFS has owned and operated the facility since July 1995. Prior owners' operators were Crop Production Services Inc. and the PureGro Co. (Unocal). However, Unocal's liability was assumed by WFS when WFS purchase the facility in 1995.

The site is used as an agricultural-chemical distribution facility, where fertilizers and pesticides are formulated and distributed to buyers for applying to farm fields.

WFS, CPS and Unocal have already done some work, including installing nine monitoring wells, drilling two borings for collecting soil samples and collecting underground water and soil samples.

The agreed order, the draft cleanup plan and the determination of non-significance are available for review through Aug. 18 at the Mid-Columbia Library, Pasco branch, on West Hopkins Street and at the Department of Ecology office on Monroe Street in Spokane.