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Owners agree on plan to clean polluted Campbell Industrial site

Andrew Gomes

A treatment plan has been finalized for contaminated groundwater and soil at a Campbell Industrial Park site that once housed a wood-treatment facility.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the present property owner, Weston Solutions Inc., and former owner, Campbell Estate, have agreed to a variety of cleanup measures for the 2.6-acre site in West Oahu once occupied by Chem-Wood Treatment Co.

Requirements include monitoring and treating groundwater, capping the site with concrete and prohibiting any future residential use of the land. The remediation plan will make it possible to put the property back into productive commercial use, the EPA said.

Weston, a Pennsylvania-based environmental cleanup firm, will fund a trust account to ensure the treatment plan is completed.

Chem-Wood ran a wood pressure-treating operation on the site from 1975 to 1988. The company used hazardous chemicals containing chromium, arsenic and mineral spirits, some of which contaminated the soil and groundwater, according to the EPA. The federal agency said it first took enforcement action at the site in 1988, and has since overseen a series of site investigations and cleanup actions.

Chem-Wood, which purchased the property in 1989, had done some cleanup work, but stopped after filing for bankruptcy in 1997.

The EPA pursued former landowner Campbell Estate for continued cleanup despite an affiliate of Chem-Wood retaining ownership of the land. Last month, the Chem-Wood affiliate deeded the land to Weston. That cleared the way for Weston and Campbell Estate to agree to a final cleanup remedy that the EPA proposed in December.

 

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