Wastech and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality have signed a voluntary agreement for an environmental cleanup investigation of a Wastech property in Portland, Ore.
A saw mill, a lumberyard, a crate manufacturing facility and a shingle company occupied the property between 1920 and 1964. The property immediately south of the Wastech property was used for a lube oil refinery from 1924 to 1965 and an associated oil sludge pit was apparently located on the property. From 1971 to 1973 the site was used as a solid waste landfill that did not take organic matter and the sludge pit was filled with construction debris.
From 1974 to the present, several companies have used the site as a recycled product sorting and transfer station. Recycled materials include paper, metal, wood, and yard debris.
Wastech purchased the property and began recycling operations in 1998. Environmental investigations between 1989 and 2003 detected petroleum hydrocarbons, PCBs, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals in soil and groundwater below the site.
Under the agreement, DEQ will provide oversight of further investigation and determination of a cleanup remedy for the site.