J H Kelly Inc

Environmental cleanup at the J H Kelly Inc site is completed and Ecology removed the site from the state's Hazardous Sites List in 2019.

Ecology held a public comment period from April 11 to May 12, 2019, on its proposal to remove the site from the Hazardous Sites List. Ecology received no comments during the comment period. 

The site is a 3.4-acre industrial location, surrounded by industrial, commercial, residential, and recreational properties. The Cowlitz River is less than 1\4 mile east of the site. Currently the site operates as a maintenance, fabrication, and contract coordination facility. There are several large buildings on the property, and the remaining area is mostly paved with asphalt.

Petroleum was stored on the site in two underground storage tanks to fuel the company's vehicles.  One 10,000 gallon tank was used for unleaded gasoline and one 4,000 gallon tank for diesel fuel.

In 1991 when the underground tanks, fuel dispensers, and associated equipment were removed from the site, petroleum contamination was found in soil and water collected from the excavated pits. To remove the contaminated soil, the pits were over excavated. Groundwater exceeded state cleanup levels for gasoline and diesel range petroleum and BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene). Groundwater was monitored on and off from 1991 to 1996 and 2006 to 2016.

Petroleum contamination of groundwater led Ecology to rank the site as a 2, with 1 being the highest relative level of concern compared to other sites. After ranking the site, Ecology placed it on the Hazardous Sites List.

In 2016, the owner entered Ecology's Voluntary Cleanup Program to independently clean up the site. After joining the program, the owner drilled bore holes in the vicinity of the former underground storage tanks. Results confirmed that petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations were below state cleanup levels in soil. 

Groundwater monitoring wells were installed near the former underground storage tanks. Initially, one of four wells indicated that diesel and oil range petroleum concentrations were above state cleanup levels in groundwater. MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether, a gasoline additive that is no longer used) was also found temporarily elevated above the state cleanup level in one of the wells.

Groundwater conditions were checked quarterly until late 2018, when each monitoring well demonstrated for four quarters that petroleum and MTBE contamination were below state cleanup levels.