Brownfields Update for the Pacific Northwest

A project in Oregon shows the value of thorough environmental assessment and consistent site planning when redeveloping a Brownfields site. It also illustrates how unknowns and the unexpected can affect the cost. Despite these obstacles and complications, the Sue Buel Elementary School project in McMinnville is considered to be a significant success, thanks to the dedication of the McMinnville School District to environmental stewardship and sustainable design.

One of the goals in $62 million bond levy approved by McMinnville voters in 2006 was to replace an aging 79-year old school with one that is energy-efficient, and sustainably designed. The result is the Sue Buel Elementary School, the first Oregon school to achieve LEED for Schools gold status and only the sixth in the nation.  Every aspect of the school was designed to meet sustainability goals. From the mechanical systems to the lighting to the landscape watering system, the school boasts sophisticated, state-of-the-art sustainable design features.

The project’s involvement with Brownfields was due to an adjacent 1.5-acre property now part of the school grounds that was an abandoned asphalt production facility. The property had been abandoned since the mid-1990s and was littered with dilapidated structures, old vehicles and the equipment remnants of the asphalt plant.

Contamination of the property was confirmed during the sale of the adjacent 12-acre property to the McMinnville School District. An investigation showed hazardous constituents in subsurface soils associated with asphalt production were encroaching on the parcel the school district was purchasing. The contamination was remediated as part of the sale agreement.

The district then set its sights on purchasing the asphalt plant property to use as a parking lot and additional school-related facilities, even though there was come concern about building a school next to potentially contaminated site. Yamhill County, which had taken possession through foreclosure, began working with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the School District to prepare the property for sale.

The DEQ performed a site assessment under its Site-Specific Assessments (SSAs) program, designed to promote contaminated property redevelopment or transfer.  Using the results of the SSA as a guide, the state agency assisted the County to apply for an EPA Brownfields Cleanup Grant, which the County received in 2005. The cleanup was completed in the summer of 2007.

The transfer of the property to the school district was undertaken under a Prospective Purchaser Agreement that contained restrictions on the design and use of the property to protect potential human and ecological receptors from any contamination exposure. One of these protections was the use of a portion of the property as a paved parking area, essentially capping any undiscovered contamination on that part of the site.

During subsequent planning, the district decided to build a storm water retention pond on that portion of the property that had been set aside for the parking area. The pond became one of the sustainable design features of the project, serving as a bioswale and controlling the drainage of storm water into a nearby creek.

Unfortunately, additional contamination was encountered during construction of the pond and sidewalks only two months before the school was scheduled to open. Though the cost of remediating the newly discovered contamination was several times that of the original cleanup, the school district made the commitment to use its own funds to remediate the contamination and proceed with its plans.

To alleviate the financial impact of this additional cleanup, the DEQ worked with the environmental consultant for the project to develop a comprehensive soil management plan that significantly reduced the cost of contaminated soil disposal. The reuse of much of the low-level contaminated soil in areas to be capped and above the groundwater table offset much of the disposal costs. In addition, careful negotiations with the landfill operator where the higher-level contaminated soil was taken, resulted in further reduction of disposal costs, due to the soil’s reuse potential as a road base.

Among the many lessons to be learned from this project is that there are limitations to environmental assessments. Not every area of a site can be accurately or completely characterized. In this case, the random nature of the historical dumping at the site did not lend itself to the traditional delineation of a single contaminant source and spatial extent. Another lesson learned is that design changes can reveal unexpected contamination which may result in additional, significant cleanup costs.

The McMinnville School District and the community are very pleased with the ultimate outcome. They have built an award-winning new, sustainably-designed school with room to expand and add facilities when needed. In the process, the district, working with the County and the DEQ, has removed a dangerous, hazardous presence from the community.

For more information contact:

Jim Glass, Western Region Petroleum Brownfield Coordinator
Oregon DEQ
503-378-5044
glass.jim@deq.state.or.us