“A year from now, we should be standing on an open, grassy field,” Grening said. “It’s going to be remarkable what’s not here.”
A historic photo hanging in the Port of Ridgefield office shows the Pacific Wood Treating site in its heyday, offering an overhead view of the process that made it an economic success and an environmental hazard. On the north end of the property sit clean, white logs, cut to be made into utility poles. Another stack sits at the other end of the property, blackened with chemicals applied to preserve the wood.
The plant operated for nearly three decades, treating wood products with oil-based solutions including creosote and pentachlorophenol. Those and other chemicals contaminated soil and groundwater in the area for years, and left behind a mess when the operation went bankrupt and closed down in 1993.
As Grening tells it, the plant’s operators “literally handed the keys to the port and said thanks.”
What: Open house meeting on the Pacific Wood Treating cleanup project
Where: Ridgefield Community Center, 210 N. Main Ave., Ridgefield
When: 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16,