by David Wilkins - Daily World Writer, The Aberdeen Daily World , 9/28/99
The Saginaw Mill in South Aberdeen used to process thousands of trees every week. Now the abandoned site is going to be "processed" - by living trees.
Working in conjunction with the Department of Ecology and the University of Washington College of Forest Resources, Grays Harbor County plans to clean up the toxic formaldehyde contamination at the site by planting hybrid poplar trees. The fast-growing trees will absorb the formaldehyde and break it down harmlessly.
"This is a fairly simple, benign solution," said Grays Harbor County's public services director, Mike Daniels, presenting the plan to the county commissioners Monday. "The poplars will pull the formaldehyde out of the ground. Then we'll have trees that can be marketed, as well as a piece of land that can be used for something else."
The mill became county property through a tax foreclosure in 1990. A quirk in state law, Daniels said, makes title to properties that are foreclosed on for taxes revert to the county treasurer. So the mill became the property of Grays Harbor County, even though it is physically located inside the Aberdeen city limits. The county found the funding to tear down the buildings on the site a couple of years later.
"The demolition was pretty involved," said Daniels. "They had a full operation in place; a powerhouse, drying sheds, boilers, the works. It was an extreme fire hazard because of the kind of work they did there over the years, and there was a lot of debris and wood spaltz pushed out into the (Chehalis) River."
The mill used formaldehyde for wood treatment and as a preservative.
The heaviest concentrations, according to Daniels, were in the area of two large storage tanks, each of which held "thousands of gallons."
Over the years, the tanks leaked, and Department of Ecology sampling found the chemical deep in the soil, as far down as the water table.
"Formaldehyde doesn't present a serious health hazard, but it's obviously something you don't want in the ground," Daniels said.
According to a University of Washington work plan prepared for the site, scientists working on the solution have also detected the formaldehyde in the river, which presented a more urgent concern for the fish-conscious Department of Ecology.
Enter the tree solution, known in scientific terms as "phytoremediation."
Slowing the spread
In addition to sucking the chemical out of the ground and metabolizing it, poplars use enough water that a clump of them planted together can actually stop groundwater from draining away from an area - thus further slowing the spread of the formaldehyde.
While using the trees as a containment method is still considered experimental, the report says, the University and the Department agree that the trees are the best solution.
Similar trees have been used by the University to contain chemical contaminants at the Keyport Undersea Naval Warfare Center near Poulsbo.
The project is estimated to cost about $103,000, $25,000 of which will be county funds. The rest will be a grant from the Department of Ecology's solid waste fund.
"Ecology has been on board with us on this right from the start," said Daniels. "They've been giving us grants right along to do the studies and testing we needed to get to the solution."
The site will be stripped of vegetation and remaining debris over the winter, and planting of the poplar trees is scheduled for March.
David Wilkins, a Daily World reporter, can be reached at 532-4000, ext. 123, or by e-mail at dwilkins@thedailyworld.com OR send online mail right now to: David Wilkins
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