Thursday, July 24, 2008
Blacksburg project digs itself into deeper hole
Contaminated soil and groundwater continue to plague construction efforts at a town-owned property in downtown Blacksburg.
Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times
Construction continues on the old Doc Roberts building in Blacksburg as it is renovated into a town hall expansion.
Doc Roberts remediation timeline
- MAY 14 Groundwater wells up in an elevator pit under construction in the basement. The water is pumped out of the building and onto the ground.
- MAY 19 A town worker taking a water sample from the pit notices a petroleum odor. Pumping of the water is stopped.
- MAY 27 The town contracts with environmental remediation firm LCM Corp. to put a tanker truck on site to collect contaminated groundwater from the elevator pit. Environmental firm Faulkner & Flynn begins working on a remediation plan.
- MAY 28 Lab tests confirm petroleum in the groundwater.
- JUNE 2 The town begins shipping accumulated groundwater to North Carolina for special handling.
- JUNE 30 The tanker truck overflows when a sump pump is left on and unattended for about five hours. About 700 gallons of contaminated groundwater mixed with rainwater flow over the site and into storm drains along Draper Road.
- JULY 10 The town reports petroleum-contaminated groundwater found in one of 24 wells being drilled on the Miller Street side of the site for the building’s geothermal heating system.
- JULY 11 DEQ is notified of continued problems with contaminated groundwater.
- JULY 15 DEQ signs off on the town’s plan to contain on the site the groundwater, soil and rock fragments from geothermal wells and allows drilling to continue.
Sources: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Blacksburg engineering department
By the numbers
- Total budget: $5.1 million
- Property purchase: $1.8 million
- Construction: $2.4 million
- Professional services, other costs: $800,000
- Contingency: $100,000
Source: Blacksburg Finance Department
A $5.1 million project to turn a Blacksburg brownfield into a town hall expansion and a showplace of environmental building has run into pollution problems.
Next door to the town council chambers -- where last month a proposal for a Sonic drive-in restaurant was rejected in part because of environmental concerns -- the town has been dealing since June with contaminated soil and groundwater at the old Doc Roberts Tire Co.
The environmental challenges include an unlawful overflow of contaminated water currently under investigation by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and concerns that pollution issues could push the project over budget in tight financial times. Since 1924, the property has been a gasoline and oil distribution center, a car dealership, a glass and radiator shop, and a tire store and garage. Last year, three petroleum storage tanks and polluted soil were removed from the site before Blacksburg Town Council purchased it for $1.8 million.
But subsequent tests of water and soil showed contaminated soil remaining in several areas on the property. Because no drinking water, rivers or streams flow near the site, however, records show the DEQ declared it stabilized and closed the case.
Town officials commissioned engineering and environmental assessments before the purchase. Construction work, including some drilling, began in April. Lead paint and asbestos removal inside the building went smoothly, project manager and town engineering director Adele Schirmer said.
But in May groundwater later found to have traces of petroleum welled up in an elevator pit being dug in the basement. The water at first seemed clean and was pumped onto the ground. On May 19, a town worker taking a water sample from the pit smelled petroleum.
Records show the town ordered the pumping halted. A tanker truck was brought in to collect the water, which tests later confirmed was tainted with petroleum. According to DEQ records, at least 10,000 gallons of tainted water have been shipped to a North Carolina treatment facility for disposal.
DEQ approved the pump-and-remove plan, and all was well until June 30. In five hours, an estimated 700 gallons of contaminated groundwater mixed with storm runoff spilled from the tanker and into storm drains along Draper Road. DEQ records show that a sump pump used to clear the elevator pit was inadvertently left on after workers left the site.
A subsequent investigation of the overflow showed no indication of any impact on nearby Stroubles Creek, DEQ water compliance supervisor Sam Hale said. Hale's office plans to issue a formal warning to the town, and DEQ will continue to monitor work at the site, he said. Hale praised the town's response to the spill, however.
"They did what they needed to do before we even knew about it," he said.
"Our expectation and our practice ... is to do absolutely everything correctly and to keep in contact with DEQ. We want it to be an example of how to do things right," Schirmer said of the project. But "human error happens, and actions have been taken so it can't happen again."
Records show that the offending sump pump is now removed from the pit at the end of every work day and locked in a box. Attention has now turned to a long-term solution to groundwater issues and possible problems with petroleum vapors in the basement.
The town has applied to the Blacksburg-VPI Sanitation Authority for a permit to filter and pump any contaminated groundwater into the town's sewer system. Meanwhile, design work has begun on a venting system for the basement that should control any vapors rising into the building, Schirmer said.
The legacy of more than 80 years of industrial pollution would continue to bedevil the project, however. On July 10, drillers sinking wells for a geothermal heating and cooling system hit more contaminated groundwater. Drilling was halted while the town's environmental consultants worked with DEQ on a plan to deal with the contaminated water and debris.
"We estimate that no more than five of the 24 geothermal wells [needed for the heating and cooling system] will be located within an area where there is the potential for groundwater contamination," the town's environmental consultant wrote in its proposal.
DEQ signed off on the plan, which will deposit drilling debris and water into a containment pond constructed behind the building. The water will be allowed to drain into the soil and the debris will also remain on the site.
"At this point, I feel like they are doing what they need to do to protect the environment," DEQ pollution response coordinator Allen Linkenhoker said.
The council was apprised of the contamination issues Friday in an e-mail from Town Manager Marc Verniel.
While he said he hopes the project will eventually improve conditions in the Stroubles Creek watershed, notice of the problems pricked old concerns for Councilman Don Langrehr, who opposed purchase of the building in 2007.
"We were paying too much. We knew there were environmental problems we had to correct," Langrehr said. "But we're in it now ... and I want to remain hopeful that the town doesn't experience some negative financial consequences from the remediation of the property."
Schirmer estimated that the contamination problems have used up about half of the project's $100,000 contingency fund. According to town financial records, as of May 31, construction was running well under budget. Upon completion, the project could qualify for up to $1.3 million in federal historic tax credits to offset some of the rehabilitation costs, town Finance Director Susan Kaiser said.
"The thing to bear in mind is ... we're making the situation better," Schirmer said. "We're improving the groundwater that's coming out. We're creating a situation where the ground will be cleaner than when we started."
"It might be something we have to go over-budget on," Mayor Ron Rordam said. "But if we want the town to develop in an environmentally friendly way, the town [government] has to step forward.
"I still feel very good about this project. I'm happy we're doing what we're doing," he said.
When completed sometime in 2009, the 1-acre site will house the town's planning and engineering departments.
