By Brian Mittge, The Chronicle, 10/5/2001
Some residents near two separate Chehalis-area aquifers contaminated by dangerous levels of toxic chemicals will soon be able to drink water from their faucets without worry.
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A project to bring treated Chehalis city water to one residence near the Lewis County Central Shop at Forest, south of Chehalis, is scheduled for completion this fall, paid for by Lewis County government and by a grant from the Washington Department of Ecology.
A similar project paid for by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to bring city water across Interstate 5 to the Labree and Hamilton roads area within a year.
Proposals are still being considered for how to extend the city's water mains from Jackson Highway to the Labree Road overpass. Construction is scheduled for summer of 2002, with a tentative completion date of Oct. 2002.
One possibility is to add to a new line being built to supply water to the new natural gas power plant being built just south of the Labree Road interchange, said Chehalis Public Works Director Jim Nichols.
In any case, the line will likely be bored underneath the freeway with no disruption to traffic, Nichols said, adding that decision has not yet been made by the EPA.
The extended lines are intended for customers whose wells are officially contaminated beyond state safety levels.
Once the water line connections to properties are complete, the wells will be capped and disconnected to prevent cross-contamination.
Six landowners have been drinking government-provided bottled water for the past six years, according to an EPA press release.
The Hamilton-Labree Road area is a federal Superfund site. A shallow aquifer in the area is contaminated with perchloroethylene, a cancer-causing chemical used in metal degreasing and dry cleaning.
Several miles away, another shallow aquifer underneath the Forest area is contaminated with several other cancer-causing industrial chemicals.
Some believe the toxic chemicals came from leakage and dumping at the Lewis County Central Shop located at the intersection of Jackson Highway and Forest-Napavine Road, although health specialists want more testing before they decide for sure.
After the contamination was discovered, the county installed a private water line to serve workers at the shop so they would not have to use contaminated water from its well.
This line will be replaced with a larger one, and will serve the only other property in the area with contamination significant enough to pose an official health risk.
Neighbors whose wells do not register at the level necessary to be officially contaminated cannot connect to the new water line, even if they want to.
The area falls outside the Chehalis Urban Growth Area, so connection to city utilities is allowed only when there is a health risk. Contamination levels must exceed state standards before connection to the new line would be allowed.
Only one landowner, Fred Teitzel, meets the threshold.
County officials will host a meeting at the Forest Grange on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. to give neighbors an update about the testing and eventual cleanup of the toxic chemicals in the aquifer underneath the rural neighborhood.
''We're having a meeting with those folks to tell them what we're doing, to give them an update and a report explaining why it takes so long,'' said Lewis County Department of General Administration Director Larry Keeton. ''Unfortunately, it's not something you can fix overnight.''
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Brian Mittge covers local government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at bmittge@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8237.
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