Unocal Bulk Plant 0885

Environmental cleanup is complete at the site and no further cleanup actions are needed. Ecology is in the process of removing the Restrictive Covenant.

Ecology held a comment period from July 16 to August 16, 2020, and asked the public to comment on the proposal to remove Restrictive Covenant No. 3160136 from the property. We received no public comments during the comment period. 

The Site is located at 333 6th Street in Woodland (Cowlitz County parcel number 50680010). 

The Site was a Unocal bulk fuel plant that began operations in 1926. The plant was used to store and distribute petroleum product. The plant included five above ground storage tanks, associated product delivery lines, and dispenser pumps. In 1992, the plant closed and all the structures were removed from the site.

As of 2020, the Site is open land. The land nearby is used for commerce, agriculture, and rural residences.

There were petroleum spills into the soil in 1985 and 1986, but most of the contamination was probably from normal plant operations. In 1992, the owner found gasoline- and diesel-range petroleum hydrocarbons, and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, an xylenes (BTEX) in soil and groundwater at the Site.

To clean it up, Unocal removed all the contaminated soil and treated the groundwater.

• 1,060 cubic yards of contaminated soil were disposed off-site.
• 224,000 gallons of groundwater were pumped and treated with activated carbon to remove contamination. 

By 2014, monitoring showed contamination in groundwater was consistently below state cleanup levels for at least a year. In 2015, Ecology issued a No Further Action letter to the owner because the Site was cleaned up and no more cleanup actions were needed. The site was cleaned up under the Voluntary Cleanup Program.

In 2020, the owner requested Ecology to remove the covenant from the property.