Priest River takes on Joslyn Park property

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PRIEST RIVER — City officials have accepted ownership of the former Joslyn mill and pole treatment facility — and heard from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality over where things stand on clean up of the site.

The 47.71- acre property, located on the confluence of the Priest and Pend Oreille rivers, was contaminated from creosote wood treatment activities performed between 1920 and 1958, according to information from IDEQ representative Steve Gill.

Mayor Jim Martin said city officials have been working on the deal for about 18 years, with the city initially trying to lease the site from the property owners. Then, in 2019, the city was approached by Joslyn Manufacturing, Inc., which had acquired the property and worked through some negotiations in order to donate the property to the city, said Martin.

Bonner County Commissioner Jeff Connolly, IDEQ officials, and representatives for Joslyn Manufacturing reached a tentative agreement for Joslyn Manufacturing, Inc, to enter into DEQ’s Voluntary Cleanup Program to assess and mitigate any contamination on the property prior to the transfer of the property to the city, said Priest River officials said in a press release in 2020.

Steve Gill, Brownfields analyst from IDEQ Coeur d’Alene Regional Office, presented cleanup of Joslyn Park property to city officials at the Oct. 18 city council meeting. He said that creosote, a heavy petroleum product, tends to seep down into the earth. On an average year, Joslyn has burned about 106,000 gallons of creosote coating different poles. Joslyn would treat about 22,000 poles a year, said Gill.

He said that IDEQ received its first complaint of contamination at the site in 1996 but determined there was nothing evident on the surface as far as contamination. Officials determined that there was an underground storage tank at the site that had fuel in it for the trucks and equipment that had burned down. While IDEQ had other complaints through the years, it wasn't until 2018 that the change in ownership of Joslyn Manufacturing, and a change in attorneys ended up with the corporation joining the state's Voluntary Cleanup Program.

Gill said the program allows a company which previously ran an industrial operation with some level of contamination to clean that property up without the use of enforcement.

First, IDEQ removed the underground storage tank. The agency then began sampling the soil surrounding the tank in 2019 and 2020. Once the assessment work was completed, IDEQ officials came up with a work plan on how to best remediate the site. Of the 37 acres on the south side of the site, the entire cleanup is contained to less than one acre, Gill said

Gill said that over the years that IDEQ was at the property there were many gophers. The risk to the gophers is that the ground is wet and could drown the animals. IDEQ began hauling away the contaminated soil on Oct. 26, 2020.

IDEQ planned to remove the soil from the contaminated acre, bring in fill and cover the area. Part of the remedy from the ecological risk evaluation was to use chicken wire as a gopher netting, Gill said. Chicken wire had to be placed around the perimeter of the old area that was excavated and put chicken wire down about four feet. The rest of the area was then covered with chicken wire as a remedy to watch for gophers.

IDEQ officials have come up with a couple different cleanup alternatives. Cleanup was slated to run about $620,000. Gill said that on Oct. 27, IDEQ discovered a large, round concrete block that was about three feet in diameter with about six inches of embedded rebar, enclosing two halves of a 20,000-gallon standing tank that had been split and with creosote inside. This was part of the operation that had never been remedied since its discovery, Gill said.

A company that was on the site put in 18 wells and did groundwater work, with Gill adding that IDEQ officials didn’t find any chemicals getting into nearby rivers. Gill said the agency found contaminated groundwater around the site but noted it isn't something anyone would use for drinking because it's so shallow.

IDEQ decided to get rid of the creosote in the tank by mixing it with dry clay on the property which soaked up the viscous creosote. Gill compared the finished product to creosote cookie dough and said IDEQ mixed it into a pile and covered it. The contaminated soil was then taken to Salt Lake City to Waste Management's soil incinerator.

The first load went out in November 2020 and the last load was in the middle of February 2021. IDEQ removed 475 tons of the contaminated soil, leaving the site very clean and ready for the next phase.

“We have now come up with an environmental covenant that will allow certain uses at this point in time,” said Gill.

The covenants will allow most uses except for residential. Gill said that is something that can be talked about in the future, but at this time the covenant allows for industrial, commercial, and recreational use.

The environmental covenant has gone through Jocelyn’s attorneys and through the Attorney General's office in Boise. As soon as IDEQ receives the city's comments, they will file the environmental covenant, Gill said.

IDEQ also provides the Brownfields Program providing the city free environmental site assessment. If something was ever found on that property in the future, redevelopment would occur. It would have to be cleaned up but won’t be the city's responsibility because of the covenant, Gill told Priest River officials.

Also, because of the environment, Jocelyn will be the holder of the covenant for the life of the document, said Gill. That will allow Jocelyn to be on the hook for clean-up efforts in the future, even though the property is owned by Priest River.

Gill suggested the site be used for recreation, highlighting design ideas from Coeur d’Alene’s Atlas Millpark on the old Stimson Atlas mill. It is a similar location and the riverbank has a very similar shape to the Joslyn Park site, he added.

“There's a lot of funds that are coming up right now that are going to be held with finance and funds for rural parks. That's not tied to the infrastructure bill in Congress. There'll be some other funding from other agencies, so we hope to help the city continue to go forward with this,” said Gill.

Councilwoman Candy Turner asked for clarification if the site can be disturbed in order to make a park. Gill said that the site could be disturbed except for the main area.

Martin said the area that can’t be disturbed is about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet — less than an acre of the 37.7-acre area. It is right on the road and is really well marked and could be feasible to pave over the area, he said.

“It's a clean piece of property, it's able to be used, it's even redeveloped commercial or recreational. It’s a huge benefit to the city,” said Martin. “It's a great spot for a trail head with a paved parking lot. We can put in trails or whatever city comes up with designs.”

“The plan is to put together an advisory committee for the property to kind of move forward on what the community wants. Like what we did with the downtown revitalization: Get people involved in what the community would like to see,” said Martin.

Gill has agreed to act as an advisory member of the committee to assist the community.

Also located on the Joslyn property, Martin said that anytime people are living or staying full time on top of an area that could possibly be contaminated, there's always a risk.

“Utilizing it for the day is not an issue,” said Martin. “But if it's like a residential development, then it becomes a bigger deal. But if that's something that the city wanted to do down the road, then we can negotiate that with Jocelyn, IDEQ and come up with that change to the covenant.”

The language of the covenant could be modified if agreed to by all parties, said Martin. He said that he thought if the property could get cleaned up it could be used for recreational purposes.

From IDEQ’s standpoint there isn’t a lot of risk. Gill said regarding the McFarland property in Sandpoint, which IDEQ worked on for years as a new residential development. If there is something that the city wishes to develop in future, IDEQ is always supportive of cities, said Gill.