Birds Eye Foods

Environmental cleanup is complete at the site and the periodic review in 2019 shows the cleanup work remains effective in protecting the health of people and the environment.

After cleanup, some petroleum contaminated soil remained at the site. To prevent exposure to that contamination, a restrictive covenant was filed for the site in 2013. The covenant restricts property use and requires maintenance of pavement and buildings to cap the area where the remaining contaminated soil is located. The covenant also requires periodic monitoring of groundwater conditions at the site.

When an environmental covenant exists for a cleanup site, Ecology reviews site conditions at least every five years to ensure long-term effectiveness of the cleanup action. 

Based on Ecology's inspection of the site on March 21, 2018, the asphalt pavement and buildings continue to provide an adequate barrier to exposure to contaminated soils. Results from the groundwater monitoring program show that groundwater conditions remain below cleanup levels.

From January 3 to February 3, 2019, Ecology held a comment period to provide the public with an opportunity to comment on conditions at the site. After responding to the comment received, Ecology finalized the periodic review report. 

Periodic Review Report-Final

Responsiveness Summary

The Birds Eye Foods site is an industrial 22.5-acre area at a former food processing facility, previously known as Nalley's Fine Foods. Currently the area consists of empty buildings and parking areas.

Since it began in the early 1940s, construction of Nalley's facility progressed in stages  between 1950 and 1969. Curtis Burns Foods acquired Nalley's in the 1970s and the name changed to Agrilink Foods in 1997 and to Birds Eye Foods in 2003. Birds Eye stopped business operations there in 2011.

In 1990, two underground storage tanks were removed from an area in the southwest corner of the property near what had been the boiler room. Petroleum-contaminated soil was observed where the tanks had been removed.  

Cleanup Site History

In 1991, Birds Eye Foods cleaned up the site by

• Removing nearly 875 cubic yards of polluted soil.
• Pumping approximately 80 gallons of contaminated water from a monitoring well.

Removal of contaminated soil was stopped when continued digging began to threaten nearby buildings and railroad tracks. The remaining contaminated soil at the site has been filled in and capped with asphalt or sealed under two adjacent buildings to eliminate people's contact with the contamination.

Groundwater monitoring wells were installed and more than 50 rounds of water sampling have been conducted at the site since 1991. Over time, petroleum concentrations in groundwater have decreased, and since 2007 concentrations have been below cleanup levels.

The restrictive covenant requires continued groundwater monitoring and maintenance of the cap covering contaminated soils to make sure that they do not pose a threat to human health and the environment.

In 2013, Ecology removed the Birds Eye Foods site from the Hazardous Sites List after holding a public comment period.