EPHRATA - The state Department of Ecology is looking for comments on a plan to clean a section of the Grant County Landfill during a road expansion.

The county plans to remove 72,000 square feet of soil in an 80 foot-wide corridor along the north side of the landfill. Ephrata-based Tommer Construction bid about $450,000 to extend Neva Lake Road from state Route 28 to Dodson Road. Removing the soil is part of the project.

Ephrata opened the landfill in 1942 and operated it until 1974, according to the Ecology. The landfill was unlined until the county opened a new lined cell in 2005.

The section where the road is being built is in an area previously used as a landfill, Grant County Public Works Director Derek Pohle explained. The garbage and spills from the old shop have contaminated the soil.

Removing the soil now will allow the county to avoid potentially having to remove it later and having to mess up the road, he said. The contractor has done some initial work on the project, but the bulk of the work will start once Ecology agrees to the plan.

"We will likely be able to get the road finished except for the paving this year," Pohle said. "We'll just have to maintain it as gravel and then this spring we'll clean it up and pave it."

The soil removed from the area will be transported to the lined cell in the landfill, according to the plan. The contractor will provide air quality monitoring, dust control and decontamination measures.

The plan for removing the soil is available at https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/gsp/CleanupSiteDocuments.aspx?csid=1692. The department is accepting comments until Nov. 22. Comments can be sent to Cole Carter, Department of Ecology, 4601 N. Monroe St., Spokane, WA 99205; or by e-mail to cole.carter@ecy.wa.gov.

Officials began examining the affect of the landfill on groundwater in 1988 when Grant County drilled and sampled 27 wells at the site. Concentrations of several different contaminates were found in the aquifers at levels requiring cleaning up.

Contractors removed 2,300 buried industrial waste drums and capped the original landfill in 2008, according to Ecology. They have extracted at least 200,000 gallons of contaminated water since 2008.

Pohle said the clean up of the landfill is about 85 to 90 percent complete. The county and Ephrata submitted a draft study which provides plans on how the final portion of the clean up will be done. Once it's complete, they will likely need to do about 20 to 30 years of groundwater monitoring.