DEQ to OK cleanup efforts at polluted Sherwood site

Developer is cleaning up the old Foster Farms site, polluted after a now defunct tannery buried animal hides there years ago

By Kelly Moyer

The Sherwood Gazette, Jul 1, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

File photo / Sherwood Gazette

WHAT LIES BENEATH – A pond on the old Ken Foster Farm, near the site where developer Patrick Huske, of Ironwood Homes, Inc., hopes to build new residences for the community of Sherwood. Huske’s company has been cleaning the site, removing soil contaminated years ago after owners of the old Frontier Leather Tannery dumped toxic animal hides on the Foster Farm property.

ADVERTISEMENTS

After months of heavy duty cleanup and the removal of 3,315 cubic yards of contaminated soil, the Department of Environmental Quality says three parcels of land on the old Ken Foster Farm site – parcels contaminated by toxic animal hides buried there years ago – meet DEQ standards and need “no further action.”

The proposal, which would bring the site’s developer, Patrick Huske of Ironwood Homes, Inc., one step closer to completing the entire environmental cleanup required by the DEQ, drew a handful of citizens to a June 11 public hearing at the Sherwood Police station.

“We don’t always do a public hearing for a ‘no further action’ proposal, but this report has tremendous detail,” explained Chuck Harman, a site assessment specialist with the DEQ.

The site, which Huske hopes to turn into a new housing development, drew attention from local environmentalists after it was discovered that owners of Sherwood’s old tannery had dumped hides there more than 20 years ago.

Because the site contains wetlands and is close to Rock Creek, which runs past the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, advocates from Raindrops to Refuge have also paid attention to the DEQ’s cleanup plan.

Lisa Frech, executive director of Raindrops to Refuge, asked several pointed questions at the June 11 hearing, to determine future risks from the site’s engineered soil cell, which holds the contaminated soil removed from lots one, two and four; as well as the future of the entire site, including the substantial wetlands area.

Harman said the engineered soil cell has passed several tests and is not leaching any toxins into the nearby soil. The cell is engineered to be structurally sound and is covered in jute matting, fresh soil and grass seed to cover the contaminated soil. At this point, DEQ officials aren’t sure if the soil cell will be part of the final site cleanup or if it will be moved to a landfill site, possibly in Hillsboro.

Currently, the soil cell, as well as lot three, is not part of the DEQ’s “no further action” proposal.

“We’re not NFAing the cells, just the properties,” said Harman. “If it (the soil cell) remains in this location, it would certainly always need to be maintained and monitored.”

1 | 2 Next Page >>