K2 clean up effort will address ground water pollution

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 4, 2016

More than six months after a report revealed contaminants in the groundwater under the former K2 site, the company’s environmental consulting service has agreed to determine the scope of the pollution.

A September 2015 site characterization done by K2’s environmental consulting company, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), indicated that the organic compound trichloroethane (TCE) was found in groundwater under the facility. However, Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) officials said in a November opinion letter that ERM’s report did not define the scope of the TCE pollution.

“… it is apparent that the vertical extent of TCE in ground water has not been defined,” the opinion letter stated.

The letter went on to report that the contamination is “within the five-year travel time of Vashon Island Wellhead Protection Zones for Water District 19,” meaning that while there is no TCE currently in District 19’s wells, it could spread in coming years. The DOE will, therefore, require that the “vertical extent of the TCE plume be fully characterized,” according to the letter.

ERM had one year from the authoring of the letter to take action.

The DOE and ERM agreed that a monitoring well would be installed and a water sample taken.

If the TCE concentration in the groundwater is less than the allowed five micrograms per liter, no further evaluation will be needed, ERM’s Monday response to Ecology’s opinion letter stated. If TCE levels are above five micrograms per liter, additional work and characterization will begin.

“K2 followed our advice,” DOE’s Dale Myers said Monday. “We had a lot of discussions and they came up with a work plan to characterize the plume.”

K2 entered into DOE’s voluntary cleanup program in the spring of 2014 and has said that cleaning up the site is a priority for the company.

The facility has been vacant since K2 moved their manufacturing business out in the mid-1990s. There has been strong local interest in the former factory, and many ideas have been generated by islanders, including plans for a large community center, but the ideas have not come to fruition, and the building continues to sit vacant.

Myers said that cleanup processes “can take a couple of years,” and that there is no time frame for the cleanup to be completed.