Superfund subdivision at K-Falls nearly ready for residents

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Preparations are underway for a busy summer ahead to complete work at the federal Superfund site of North Ridge Estates.

It’s the former home of a World War II-era military base northeast of Klamath Falls contaminated by remains of poorly demolished building materials tainted with asbestos.

This year marks the third and final year of work to clean-up and store asbestos materials on-site while restoring homes and landscapes on the property. Declared a federal Superfund site, identified by the State of Oregon as its most hazardous site available to federal aid, the project is expected to top $35 million in federal cost by its projected completion later this year.

More than 150,000 cubic yards of dirt has already been moved in the project to retrieve demolished materials from the original World War II-era military hospital that was built on site — then converted into the original Oregon Institute of Technology campus — before being demolished to make room for residential housing in a subdivision named North Ridge Estates.

The demolition process was poorly handled by the land developer in the 1970s, resulting in toxic asbestos materials being buried beneath the soil on the 125-acre site, some of which began bubbling up to the surface in recent years.

Initial cleanup efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 2000s proved ineffective, and by 2006 many residents had been offered permanent relocation.

Once a lush forested area, the land has been stripped of most of its large trees to allow for asbestos excavation and contaminated root removal, leaving a site that for the past two years has resembled the aftermath of a bomb explosion.

A large repository of asbestos materials has been built in the center of the subdivision, to be sealed and monitored for erosion and exposure.

On Tuesday, Klamath County Commissioners declared the county’s property management department to be in charge of monitoring the site, in addition to Department of Environmental Quality and EPA inspections.