News: Colby (Contaminated Soil Storage - 1993)

Transcriber: Robert Lipprandt
bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surname: Warner

----Source: The Tribune - Phonograph (Abbotsford, WI) 8/16/2017

Originally published in the Tribune-Phonograph, Wednesday, August 18, 1993

The two elongated plastic covered piles observed by motorists just south of the City of Colby recently consist of gasoline contaminated soil excavated from the Highway 98 project in the Village of Spencer.

The piles, holding about 2,100 cubic years of material will sit on the Highway 13 right of way for no more than a year, and probably less, according to an official of the firm that is treating the contaminated dirt.

Mick Warner of RMT in Madison explained last week that the soil came from areas around to leaking underground storage tanks that were uncovered during the state highway reconstruction project in Spencer. The DNR is currently reviewing the situation to assign responsibility for the tanks, but meanwhile the polluted soil had to be gotten rid of.

As recently as a few years ago, that would have meant land-filling the entire cargo, but that is no longer the preferred method of treatment, according to Warner, whose firm contracted with the DOT to handle the task. He stated, “It became clear that putting the soil in landfills was a waste of space, and the volatile molecules still escape to the atmosphere.”

RMT set up what is referred to as a “passive voltitzation” site. Plastic was laid down, the soil arranged in a berm, and plastic put over the top. Perforated PVC pipes were woven through the piles as they were formed.