Barrels to be removed

EPHRATA - Major clean-up work to remove about 2,000 buried drums full of solvents and paint sludge from the Ephrata Landfill was scheduled to start today.

The drum removal and clean-up is expected to last until July 13 and cost $941,082 for the drum removal, $1 million for the drum disposal and $1.3 million for testing and oversight work, said Derek Pohle, Grant County's public works director and county engineer.

The drums will be disposed of as they're removed and the work should take another 30 to 45 days, he said.

Grant County will pay for the cleanup work because it operated the landfill when the drums were buried in August 1975, he said.

A state Department of Ecology grant will cover 75 percent of the cleanup costs, Pohle said.

Contamination was found in the groundwater, but drinking water is not being threatened, he said. It's believed the contents of the drums leaked and reached the groundwater.

As part of the cleanup, groundwater will be pumped from a small aquifer into an evaporation pond, which could take a year or longer, he said.

The old area of the landfill is no longer accepting garbage and will be going through a closure process this year, he said. The new area at the south end of the landfill is operating.

The City of Ephrata operated the landfill from 1942 until 1974 and is listed as a potentially liable person with Grant County, according to the state Department of Ecology.

Grant County was paid $2 per drum to dispose of the drums, which came from throughout the Northwest, according to a photo caption from an August 1975 edition of the Grant County Journal.

It's not officially known where the waste came from, but work is under way to find that out, said Ephrata City Administrator Wes Crago.

Crago said the city and county are working cooperatively on fixing the problem and clean up the landfill at the lowest cost to taxpayers.

Work is being done by the city and county, lawyers and insurance companies to determine who's responsible for the waste and who transported it, he said.

A paper trail may emerge from other possible lawsuits in the state involving the waste, Crago said.

Further tests will also be conducted on the waste, he said.

"We'll see where that leads us," he added.