NEC Moves Forward On Cleanup Of Old Site

Nearly a decade after losing its headquarters to fire, the Northcoast Environmental Center has received a $200,000 federal EPA “Brownfields” grant that will allow the organization to clean up the site where its building once stood on 9th Street in Arcata.

The catch is that the NEC must come up with a 20 percent match – or $40,000 – to secure the grant. You can help (see below.)

The lot has stood empty for nearly a decade when contaminants were discovered while excavating in preparation to rebuild. Photo: Sam Camp © campimages.com

In July of 2001, a fire started on the roof of the building ballooned into a blaze that razed the entire block. In addition to losing its home of nearly 20 years, the NEC lost most of its extensive library, archives and records – including thousands of books, maps and news clippings collected over three decades.

After the fire the NEC, which was nearly finished paying off the mortgage on the modest commercial building, launched a campaign to raise money to rebuild on the lot. The “Phoenix Rising From The Ashes” campaign ambitiously planned a three-story building that would hold offices, a new and bigger library and living quarters above.

However, before the project could get off the ground, soil testing revealed contamination from dry-cleaning solvents that were used long before the organization purchased the lot, which is located just a half-block from the Arcata Plaza.

“That just stopped all further progress on rebuilding,” said Bob Morris, the NEC board member who spearheaded the effort to secure funding for the cleanup.

Perchloroethylene, also known as “PCE” or “PERC,” was discovered on the property after an underground heating oil tank was excavated and removed. PERC is a hazardous pollutant linked to cancer and neurological damage. According to an EPA fact sheet, “[b]ecause it is a liquid that does not bind well to soil, PERC that makes its way into the ground can move through the ground and enter groundwater.  Plants and animals living in environments contaminated with PERC can store small amounts of the chemical.”

Used extensively in the dry-cleaning industry, PERC has been shown to cause kidney and liver damage and cancer in animals and humans. The California state legislature has mandated that the chemical be phased out by 2023, and the Sierra Club is pressuring the U.S. EPA to ban the chemical completely

“We could have pursued [the option] to cap the site, and just leave the toxic chemicals there,” said Pete Nichols, NEC board member. “But since we’re an environmental organization focused on trying to clean up the environment and protecting Humboldt Bay, we decided to do the right thing and conduct a full cleanup. But we could only do it with this grant.”

Nichols added that contaminated groundwater at the site could potentially impact the bay and the only way to prevent this was to undergo a cleanup. This will minimize the threat of exposure, he said.

Such a cleanup is a costly undertaking, however, and Morris took the lead in the quest to obtain the EPA Brownfields grant since he has prior experience with dry-cleaner contamination on a property in Southern California.

“The good news is there are relatively low levels of contamination,” said Morris, adding that he thinks the grant, along with the matching funds, will hopefully be enough to complete the entire cleanup.

The property will require two complementary strategies to effectively deal with the contamination, said Kirk Cohune of GreenWay Partners - the firm retained by the NEC board to manage the cleanup. The first stage is an off-site process, he explained, where the most contaminated soil on the site will be excavated and hauled away to a special hazardous waste landfill.  

The second phase takes place on-site where underground injection of the soil and groundwater with a bio-remediation agent will be implemented.  

“The use of bio-remediation agents, like cheese whey or molasses, has become standard practice in the treatment of chlorinated solvents, which are found on the NEC site,” said Cohune in an e-mail.

“They stimulate the activity of beneficial bacteria already present in the soil and have proven to be effective in reducing the threats these toxic chemicals pose to soil and groundwater at thousands of sites around the world.  They are also non-toxic to produce, cost effective and limit the amount of soil that has to be removed from a site, a big improvement from past technologies.”

Cohune said that the site groundwater will be monitored regularly over a period of 12-18 months, and if necessary, the on-site treatment may be implemented again.  “Typically, this process can lead to the remediation of a site like the NEC within 1-2 years,” he said, adding that there is some variability in the amount of time necessary for completion of the process.

It could take 2-4 years to complete the cleanup and reach a “clean bill of health, also known as a completion letter or notice of no further action from the California North Coast Water Quality Control Board,” Morris said. “And we’re hoping to be able to leave it cleaner than when we got it.”

The NEC had occupied the site since 1982, when it purchased the building that once functioned as a dry cleaning business. Since the fire, the site has remained undeveloped while undergoing Phase I and Phase II assessments, which identified contamination.  

These assessments consisted of drilling and sampling both the soil and water to determine the range and levels of contamination.

“This cleanup has been a long time coming,” said Larry Glass, NEC board president, who has served on the board, with a few breaks, since the early ‘70s. “It is such a relief to have the opportunity to move forward nearly ten years after the fire.”

The cleanup work will likely get underway later this year. 

Listen to KMUD interview board member Bob Morris about the Brownfields Grant here.

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