A sun-bleached sign touting the name “IMFAB” hangs above the entrance of the Old Palouse Producers building on Main Street across from the Post Office. Weeds grow through the cracked asphalt parking area in trails leading up to weathered and worn Caterpillar fork-lifts, one of them sporting a set of deflated tires and chipped yellow paint, flanking pallets of cinder-blocks that rest in front of the entrance to the old metal fabrication building.
Next door to the site is father-and-son-owned Bagott Motors.
Mike Bagott commented on the facility and its past.
“From a community perspective, even an empty lot would be better,” Bagott said.
The issue is the lack of site up-keep at the old Palouse Producers site, he said.
Mike Bagott commented on the facility and its past.
“From a community perspective, even an empty lot would be better,” Bagott said.
The issue is the lack of site up-keep at the old Palouse Producers site, he said.
The site, like an estimated 450,000 others similar to it nationwide, is considered a brownfield site, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and the City of Palouse is planning on changing that.
Brownfield sites are parcels of land assessed by the EPA as contaminated, hazardous or polluted. Old or abandoned gas and service stations, fertilizer distribution centers and bulk fuel stations from the 1950s often sit on these sites – in many cases in downtown areas and on main streets.
Brownfield sites are parcels of land assessed by the EPA as contaminated, hazardous or polluted. Old or abandoned gas and service stations, fertilizer distribution centers and bulk fuel stations from the 1950s often sit on these sites – in many cases in downtown areas and on main streets.
In response to the contaminated land, the EPA Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative aims at strengthening local economies by helping communities clean-up and reuse brownfields sites. Projects typically include a study phase of the contamination or pollution at the site, a phase for devising a cleanup plan, a reuse plan, and finally implementation of clean-up and reuse.
“The point of the project is to address cleaning up these sites,” Palouse Brownfields Committee Chair Doug Willcox said. “The Brownfields projects are designed to restore these sites to contributing locations.”
To move the Brownfields project past the first stages, the state Department of Ecology awarded the City of Palouse with a $200,000 Integrated Planning Grant, or IPG. The city is using the IPG funds to devise a clean-up plan for contamination in the soil and ground water at the Palouse Producers site and a commercial reuse plan.
According to the May 2008 assessment of the site, researchers found petroleum, herbicide, pesticide, and manganese, which is found in unleaded gasoline, in the soil.
The Palouse Brownfield site’s history shows a pattern of uses free of any major contaminating presence until more recent years.
The May 2008 site assessment document for the project listed the earliest uses for the building in its nearly 120 years in use: a wagon wheel shop, butcher shop, general store, dentist office, stable and welding shop. In 1955, Conoco moved onto the site and constructed a service station with above ground service tanks to hold leaded gasoline.
According to the assessment, the contamination of the site only occurred sometime after 1977 when the owners at the time, Palouse Producers, operated a fertilizer distribution and bulk fuel facility.
Willcox said the contamination of the site came from mishandling the refueling of large delivery trucks while refueling from the large tanks in the mid ‘80s.
According to the assessment, the state Department of Ecology cited the Palouse Producers in 1985 for spills of petroleum and negligence leading to leaks into the Palouse River.
An active proponent of the Brownsfield project, Mayor Michael Echanove said no immediate threat to the health of the community is evident due to the sites contamination, despite the site’s close proximity to the Palouse River. Echanove said the cleanup still remains crucial to city improvement.
The May 2008 assessment listed costs involved with the actual cleanup of the site being an estimated $286,200 to be paid over five years in $54,000 installments, a price tag Echanove said some residents may be concerned with.
To cover those costs, Willcox said the city will look to acquire additional grant money from the DOE or EPA to help out.
The project has much of the town in support, Echanove said. “I wouldn’t say there is opposition.”
Currently, the Palouse Brownsfield Project is in the middle of the first step of the integrated planning process, Willcox said. Willcox said two approaches are being made -- one of them being the planning of the cleanup phase, and the other the planning of the economic development on the site.
In the City Hall office hangs an artist conception of possible commercial developments.
Echanove said one idea for future development of the site is a retail building featuring urban residences.
But for now, the facility remains stocked with metal fabrication supplies visible from the sidewalk and as a private storage building. Willcox said the current owner remains the Palouse Producers, a company that filed bankruptcy in 1986, and that possible acquisition of the site by the City would come later.
The current tenant John Sell declined to comment.
Meanwhile, many Palouse residence are looking forward to the future of the site.
Joyce Beeson, the City Clerk and Treasurer, said the project is a major source of pride in the community. “People are really proud of their little town now,” she added.
“The point of the project is to address cleaning up these sites,” Palouse Brownfields Committee Chair Doug Willcox said. “The Brownfields projects are designed to restore these sites to contributing locations.”
To move the Brownfields project past the first stages, the state Department of Ecology awarded the City of Palouse with a $200,000 Integrated Planning Grant, or IPG. The city is using the IPG funds to devise a clean-up plan for contamination in the soil and ground water at the Palouse Producers site and a commercial reuse plan.
According to the May 2008 assessment of the site, researchers found petroleum, herbicide, pesticide, and manganese, which is found in unleaded gasoline, in the soil.
The Palouse Brownfield site’s history shows a pattern of uses free of any major contaminating presence until more recent years.
The May 2008 site assessment document for the project listed the earliest uses for the building in its nearly 120 years in use: a wagon wheel shop, butcher shop, general store, dentist office, stable and welding shop. In 1955, Conoco moved onto the site and constructed a service station with above ground service tanks to hold leaded gasoline.
According to the assessment, the contamination of the site only occurred sometime after 1977 when the owners at the time, Palouse Producers, operated a fertilizer distribution and bulk fuel facility.
Willcox said the contamination of the site came from mishandling the refueling of large delivery trucks while refueling from the large tanks in the mid ‘80s.
According to the assessment, the state Department of Ecology cited the Palouse Producers in 1985 for spills of petroleum and negligence leading to leaks into the Palouse River.
An active proponent of the Brownsfield project, Mayor Michael Echanove said no immediate threat to the health of the community is evident due to the sites contamination, despite the site’s close proximity to the Palouse River. Echanove said the cleanup still remains crucial to city improvement.
The May 2008 assessment listed costs involved with the actual cleanup of the site being an estimated $286,200 to be paid over five years in $54,000 installments, a price tag Echanove said some residents may be concerned with.
To cover those costs, Willcox said the city will look to acquire additional grant money from the DOE or EPA to help out.
The project has much of the town in support, Echanove said. “I wouldn’t say there is opposition.”
Currently, the Palouse Brownsfield Project is in the middle of the first step of the integrated planning process, Willcox said. Willcox said two approaches are being made -- one of them being the planning of the cleanup phase, and the other the planning of the economic development on the site.
In the City Hall office hangs an artist conception of possible commercial developments.
Echanove said one idea for future development of the site is a retail building featuring urban residences.
But for now, the facility remains stocked with metal fabrication supplies visible from the sidewalk and as a private storage building. Willcox said the current owner remains the Palouse Producers, a company that filed bankruptcy in 1986, and that possible acquisition of the site by the City would come later.
The current tenant John Sell declined to comment.
Meanwhile, many Palouse residence are looking forward to the future of the site.
Joyce Beeson, the City Clerk and Treasurer, said the project is a major source of pride in the community. “People are really proud of their little town now,” she added.
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