Source: http://www.redbluffdailynews.com, January 7, 2017
Environmental cleanup is slated to start Monday at the site of a former Pacific Gas & Electric Co. manufactured gas plant along the Sacramento River in downtown.
Under the oversight of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, PG&E will clean up site soils impacted by historic gas making activities at 600 Pine St.
From 1874 to 1947, a manufactured gas plant operated at the site burning wood, shale, coal and crude oil to produce gas. The byproducts of gas-making operations were tar, light oils, sludge and lampblack, which is a fine black soot-like material.
PG&E sold the property in 1959 and a motel was built in 1962 and operated until 2010 when PG&E repurchased the property to facilitate investigation and cleanup activities. PG&E demolished the motel in 2011 and cleanup work has been undertaken since.
Potential contaminants of concern include diesel, gas, motor oil and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons — chemicals released when organic matter is burned.
Work will includes removal of vegetation, and installation of screening; digging out 11,800 cubic yards — about 800 truckloads — of shallow soil; transportation of soil in trucks via a city-approved truck route to off-site, licensed disposal facilities; on-site treatment of 11,400 cubic yards of deeper soil by mixing soil with cement and stabilizing it in place and general site activities, including backfilling and compacting the area with clean, imported soil to allow for drainage and future development.
Work is scheduled to begin Monday and potentially continue through September. Hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays.
Crews will be monitoring air in the work area and around the site perimeter; controlling odor and dust with water, tarps, foam and other measures, as needed; controlling noise with temporary sound walls; doing work with vibrations during the middle of the day and cleaning and covering trucks with tarps before trucks exit the site.
As with all heavy construction work, there will be some noise and vibrations. As many as six trucks will enter and exit the sire per hour.
In order to minimize traffic impacts, workers will stage trucks off-site. Workers may temporarily close sidewalks next to the site, remove some parking spaces on Rio Street near the site and use flaggers to help move truck traffic along.