ExxonMobil ADC

A Puget Sound Initiative site - Reaching the goal of a healthy, sustainable Puget Sound.

The ExxonMobil / American Distributing Company (ADC) site was a former petroleum bulk storage and distribution facility located south of and adjacent to the former Kimberly-Clark Worldwide mill. The predecessors of ExxonMobil Oil Corporation owned the entire site from 1927 to 1974. Mobil Oil continued to operate the southern portion of the site until 1987 but sold the northern portion to A.P. Miller for use by ADC. ADC used their portion of the site for bulk petroleum operations until 1990.

Between 1998 and 2000, all structures were removed from the entire site. Following an  investigation in 1998, an “interceptor trench” was built to recover petroleum and the site was paved. It remains an asphalt parking lot today.

More recent site investigations have found petroleum-related contaminants in the soil and groundwater. The contaminants include: total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs), lead, benzene, ethylbenzene and xylene.

Site cleanup has been addressed under three prior legal agreements:

• 1996 Agreed Order: Actions in 1996 included cleanup of petroleum releases at the City of Everett's combined sewer overflow line into Port Gardner. Actions also included pilot testing of petroleum recovery technologies. As a result, direct discharge of petroleum into Port Gardner via the combined sewer overflow was eliminated and about 23,000 gallons of petroleum contamination was recovered.
• 1998 Agreed Order: Actions in 1998 included preparing a Remedial Investigation/ Focused Feasibility Study report (data from 1988 to 1996 were compiled and evaluated) and performing an Interim Action to contain petroleum contamination on the site. Interim Actions performed (between 1998 and 2000) included demolition of site structures, construction of an interceptor trench (for petroleum recovery), and construction of a site cover to minimize infiltration of surface water into subsurface soil. Since 2000, groundwater monitoring and petroleum recovery activities are ongoing at the site. As a result of this Order, the ExxonMobil and ADC properties were converted into a parking lot, to allow for possible future remediation activities at the site.
• 2010 Agreed Order: In March 2010, ExxonMobil, ADC, and Ecology worked together to perform additional investigations to characterize the contamination at the site and to develop cleanup options.

Investigation and cleanup under the Third Agreed Order has included:

• February 2010: ExxonMobil ADC collected soil profile samples along the City of
  Everett’s proposed new combined sewer outfall alignment. The proposed alignment
  runs adjacent to the site.
• June 2010: ExxonMobil ADC found and removed corroded piping that led to the former bulk storage tanks during soil profile work. Initial Focused Feasibility Study fieldwork began with the collection of soil and groundwater data.
• November 2010: Additional Focused Feasibility Study soil and groundwater data were collected along with a shallow test pit where oil was surfacing through cracks in the asphalt.
• February 2011: A tidal study was conducted to investigate potential tidal influence on site groundwater.
• April 2011: A Focused Feasibility Study Data Gaps Report detailing the results of the initial investigation including the tidal study was completed. The Data Gaps report was reviewed and used to identify additional data needs to define the full nature and extent of contamination at the site.
• December 2011: ExxonMobil ADC conducted an excavation in the northeast portion of the site to remove liquid phase petroleum hydrocarbons in soil and groundwater on the BNSF and former Kimberly-Clark property. The excavation was conducted in support of the City of Everett to address contamination that may be encountered during construction of the city’s Combined Sewer Overflow project located near the site.
• May 2022: A Draft Interim Action Work Plan, Agreed Order Amendment, State Environmental Policy Act Determination of Non-Significance and Draft Public Participation Plan were released for public comment. The Agreed Order Amendment delayed the approval of a Draft Cleanup Action Plan to allow the Interim Action Plan to be performed first. The Draft Interim Action Plan outlined remedial work on the Port of Everett property west of Federal Avenue, including excavating contaminated soil and building an underground barrier wall. These actions were designed to reduce the presence of hazardous substances and help prevent conditions from deteriorating and becoming more difficult to fix in the future. The State Environmental Policy Act Determination of Non-Significance describes our determination that the activities in the Draft Interim Action Work Plan are not likely to harm the environment. Lastly, the Draft Public Participation Plan is an updated version of the plan we prepared in 2009. It describes how the public can provide input on plans for cleanup. This work was finished in September 2023.
• January 2024: A Draft Cleanup Action Plan, Draft Feasibility Study Report, Draft Feasibility Study Amendment and Draft Consent Decree were released for public comment. The Draft Cleanup Action Plan outlines the proposed cleanup plan for the contamination at the site. The Draft Feasibility Study Report describes the different options for cleaning up the sire base on the findings of the remedial investigation. Along with the Draft Feasibility Study, an Addendum was proposed that describes how the earlier Interim [cleanup] Action, described in the bullet point above, was incorporated into the Feasibility Study Report. Finally, the Draft Consent Decree is a formal legal agreement between Ecology and ExxonMobil ADC that describes the cleanup work to be completed and the terms under which it is conducted. The public comment period ended and no comments were received. 
• Summer to Fall 2024: Excavation commenced on the Exxon/ADC property. 

Ecology is reviewing the draft Excavation Completion Report and the draft Confirmational Groundwater and Soil Sampling Plan. The final steps will be to finalize the documents and draft and file the environmental covenant to address any residual contamination on the site. 

Learn more about Washington's Cleanup Process.