A small parcel of Enumclaw land sits vacant, unfit for development due to contamination that first soiled the ground in 1928.
The privately-held property is found at the northwest corner of the intersection of Railroad Street and Washington Avenue.
It harkens back to a day when Enumclaw’s commercial district was much different, a time when the railroad chugged through town and strict environmental regulations were many decades away from implementation.
For years, the city has expressed a desire to see the property reclaimed and made fit for development. One caveat, however, is that local government is unwilling to spend taxpayer dollars on the effort. Community Development Director Erica Shook has said the clean-up would likely cost at least $500,000, perhaps twice that much.
So the land sits, with local owners paying property tax on a parcel slightly less than a half-acre in size.
The saga, more than 80 years in the making, began in 1928 when the Shell Oil Company established a bulk distribution facility on the property. Included were four above-ground storage tanks and two underground tanks with a combined capacity of more than 73,000 gallons. The facility supplied fuel dealers in the area with a variety of petroleum products which were shipped into and out of the facility by truck. Aside from leaded gasoline, the site was home to diesel fuel, heating oil/kerosene and lubricating oils. Hans Christensen purchased the property from Shell Oil Company in 1970 and operated the business until 1983 when he leased it to Associated Petroleum Products of Tacoma. The facility was decommissioned in the late 1980s and the last of the tanks removed in 1992. The property has been vacant since then.
In 1996, the site was in-cluded on the Washington State Department of Ecology’s list of “Confirmed and Suspected Contaminated Sites” after petroleum contamination was found during utility work in 1994 to replace an old wooden storm drain in the city’s right of way on the east side of the property.
In 2006, the property received a formal assessment through the King County Brownfields Program. Soil samples confirmed the release of gasoline and diesel petroleum products. These hydrocarbons are generally confined to the central interior of the site and the northeast corner of the property, although it is believed contamination stretches under an adjacent alley and under Railroad Street to the east.
Contamination is no deeper than 8 feet, which means the troubled soil can be excavated. Studies indicate between 2,700 and 4,500 tons of soil may have to be removed and/or treated to achieve cleanup of the property.
A Phase 2 assessment was conducted in May, limited to the ground beneath the city-owned alley and Railroad Street. A drilling machine bored nine holes, each to a depth of 20 feet. It was determined contamination in the area was relatively shallow and did not extend far off-site, making excavation a viable option.
That’s not likely to happen soon, according to Shook. She said the city will continue looking for ways to pay for soil removal and groundwater testing, primarily through grants, but nothing will happen until outside money is secured.
