By Cathy Ingalls
For the Gazette-Times | Posted: Thursday, October 2, 2008 12:00 am
Vegetable waste not considered hazardous
Cleanup crews were working at several places along a drainage ditch and Oak Creek this morning, pumping out gallons of corn oil and "green bean water."
The liquids had spilled from a pipe that parallels the Union Pacific Railroad tracks near The Bark Place on Pacific Boulevard.
Pump trucks were working in at least five locations this morning.
Marcia Danab, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Quality in Portland, said the spill was not considered a hazardous release. She said the material was from National Frozen Foods, 745 30th Ave. S.W.
The spill was discovered last Friday morning, and workers have been cleaning up the waste from vegetable processing since then, said Bill O'Bryan, general manager of the company. He estimates that about 80,000 gallons had spilled.
The pipe carrying the waste runs from the plant and along the railroad tracks to an irrigation site on Beta Drive.
O'Bryan said the spill could have occurred 10 hours before its discovery, and it was found when someone noticed cloudy water going through the drainage ditch.
He could not say why the pipe was severed or punctured. O'Bryan said crews cleaning brush from alongside the tracks could have been responsible, but he could not be sure.
The pipe has been repaired, and now it is a matter of cleaning up the ditch and the creek.
He expected crews to have a good handle on the cleanup this afternoon.
"We've been washing down and cleaning the water in the drainage way since Friday," he said. Once the leak was discovered, workers shut the plant down.
It remained down for about eight hours.
Danab said DEQ is sending a water quality specialist from its Salem office to Albany this afternoon to inspect the cleanup.
O'Bryan said, "We just want to be a good community neighbor and get this cleaned up."