The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA - On Thursday, October 19, the planned drilling in the right-of-way was completed, and 2nd Avenue and Rose Street were reopened to traffic.

Western States Drilling drilled two monitoring wells on the Chevron property and another on Thursday. All planned wells were expected to be completed by the end of last week.

At the storm drain near 3rd Avenue and Rose Street, where gasoline odor and sheen had been detected, Clean Harbors and Washington Department of Ecology staff utilized a camera from the City's Public Works Street Division to locate where the vapors could have traveled from. 

Pipes from the storm drain were found to connect to the catch basin outside the west wall of the Marcus Whitman Hotel, where sheen and vapors were detected, as well as to rain gutters on the hotel's south side. City Streets staff located the pipe on the site and confirmed its connection to the hotel's gutters. The sheen is too low in the basin to reach the connecting pipe, but vapors could reach and travel along the pipe. 

From its equipment in the parking lot of the 106 building, Clean Harbors resumed the discharge of filtered water to the municipal wastewater treatment system at about 15 gallons per minute.

Ventilation continues to mitigate volatile organic compounds from the affected buildings. 

This update is based on information provided by Washington Department of Ecology. City staff will continue to provide these updates on the City website (https://www.wallawallawa.gov/gasoline) as they receive additional details.