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Treoil Industries Biorefinery

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Notice and Discovery 3/15/2017 Site Update
On 6 March 2017, Washington Department of Ecology inspectors discovered many unsecured, improperly stored containers, totes, drums, and tanks containing various types of fluids that appear to be leaking to the ground. The Whatcom County Health Department along with Ecology have been aware of this facility and have been tracking actions site over the years. In addition, the largest tanks (estimated to upwards of 300,000 gallons) were found on the property with contents of potentially used oil without containment, 60-70 smaller tanks and vessels, and at least 300 abandoned drums with many in poor condition.  Given the most recent extremely wet weather in Western Washington and the uncontrolled nature of the various containers, totes, vessels, and tanks, Ecology requested EPA to immediately respond to secure, contain, and mitigate cleanup of the spilled hazardous substances and/or oil to protect human health and the environment. The owner of the site appears to have not conducted any type of cleanup action nor taken responsibility for taking proper actions at the site for well over a decade.
EPA Actions - Initial 3/15/2017 Site Update
On 13 March 2017, OSCs Stanfield and Fowlow have secured access to the site through the owner and are scheduled to respond to conduct an assessment along with EPA START and ERRS contractors. Ecology, Whatcom County Health Department, and a property representative will also be onsite to review the current conditions. The goal will be to conduct a complete inventory of the containers, drums, totes, and tanks at the site and to verify the types of fluids contained, any known releases, or threats of release. If necessary, actions will be taken to secure, mitigate, and cleanup spilled fluids, if necessary. This is the second time EPA is conducting an assessment of this site with the previous time taking place nearly 17 years ago. The Treoil Industries site is a former refinery that processed distilled “tall oil,” which is a by-product from pine trees processed at pulp mills. Tall oil rosin is a component of adhesives, rubber products, inks, and is used as an emulsifier for asphalt. It is unknown when this company ceased operations, but reportedly the refinery has been sitting idle and largely unmonitored for approximately 10 years.
Site assessment progress 3/19/2017 Site Update

By the end of Saturday 3/18 EPA and its response contractors had completed its inventory, and hazard classification of over 450 containers of hazardous collected from Warehouses A and B and from outside facility buildings.  The containers were staged in preparation for offsite disposal.  Asbestos sampling was completed and results indicated the presence of asbestos in several sources including large chunks of pipe wrap found discarded throughout Warehouse B and in approximately 5 cubic yards of sacks of what appeared to be demolition debris.  These materials were also consolidated and staged for off-site disposal.  EPA consolidated approximately 2,500 of discarded tall oil from drums and totes (several of them found leaking) and approximately 18 cubic yards of tall oil sludge and prepared this material for off-site disposal.  EPA identified approximately 7,000 gallons of glycerin crude (a byproduct of biodiesel production) and began arranging for the off-site recycling of this material.  An inventory of Aboveground Storage Tanks (ASTs) identified 50 visible ASTs (39 with no secondary containment) with a combined storage capacity of over 1,000,000 gallons.  Although the assessment is expected to be completed by Tuesday 3/21, once the largest tanks can be accessed, currently at least 12,000 gallons of what is believed to be pumpable (i.e. recoverable) tall oil has been discovered in tanks outside the secondary containment areas.

Assessment activities and sampling for the profiling of the various waste streams identified on site will continue into the early part of the coming week.  It is expected that shipment of identified waste for off-site disposal or recycling will begin in the latter half of the coming week.