Chempro Gets Final Oks On Cleanup Of Waste Plant

GEORGETOWN

Chempro has received final state and federal approvals on a plan to clean up and improve its hazardous-waste-handling plant here.

Chempro, a division of Burlington Resources, plans to spend $3 million next year and about $1 million, in 1993, at the Georgetown site. Chempro has five hazardous-waste treatment plants in Washington.

About a dozen hazardous-waste treatment plants in the state, including the plant here, are required by federal law to have clean-up and equipment-improvement plans by 1992.

The permitting process on Chempro's Georgetown plant was complex and lengthy. David Aubrey, plant manager, said the facility first submitted its clean-up and improvement plans in 1988. The plans were in six, four-inch-thick binders, said Aubrey.

Dave Croxton, a scientist for the federal Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle, said the EPA won't be able to pass judgment on all hazardous-waste treatment sites in Washington by the deadline. He said the agency will concentrate first on those plants that need to be cleaned up most, such as Chempro's Georgetown plant, which is the first of its kind in Washington to get its plans approved.

Aubrey said the money will be spent to clean up existing contamination at the plant and on new equipment to better handle wastes.

For example, he said, the company will buy equipment to collect and scrub gases that escape from storage tanks. Also, Chempro will spend to rebuild and remodel storage tanks, improve truck-loading areas, and build a new rail-car loading area.

The plant handles industrial hazardous wastes, such as paints, solvents, oils, acids, and alkalines, and prepares them for permanent storage or incineration. There are no large permanent hazardous- waste storage sites in Washington.

Aubrey said the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, passed in 1980 and amended in 1984, set the 1992 deadline for hazardous-waste- handling and storage sites.

Aubrey said the goal of the improvements was to reduce emissions by more than 90 percent.