Astro Western Station 607

The Astro Western Station is located at 13117 NE Highway 99 in Vancouver. In the past, the site was a service station and convenience store. Today, the site consists of a number of shops and an asphalt paved parking lot.
Underground storage tanks (UST) used while the site was a service station polluted the site with:

• Gasoline-range petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH-G) in soil.
• Benzene and 1,2 Dichloroethane (EDC) in groundwater.

In 1996, prior owners removed three USTs and more than 800 tons of contaminated soil. They pumped out about 2,800 gallons of contaminated groundwater from one of the monitoring wells. About 11 cubic yards of TPH-G contaminated soil was left in place. The TPH-G soil concentration is 79 milligrams per kilogram. This remaining soil is 20 feet beneath one of the current building’s concrete slab floor.

Between 1996 and 2009, owners did more site sampling and studies to address contamination. Results from several rounds of monitoring (14 rounds since 2005) showed no petroleum in groundwater. This shows that the contaminated soil does not pose a threat to groundwater.

The property owner recorded an environmental covenant  for the property in 2009 because some contamination remains in soil.

The covenant was terminated in 2014. Periodic reviews are required when institutional controls are required for a site. As the environmental covenant for this site has been terminated, periodic reviews are no longer required. 

Ecology also issued a No Further Action letter in 2009, approving the cleanup.