By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Residents driving down North Anderson Avenue recently may have noticed a construction crew with drilling rigs working on a lot near where the road turns into East Allard Street. The work is part of an environmental clean-up project on property owned by Dow Chemical.
According to information provided by Matt Moore, the project manager with environmental remediation firm CH2M out of Denver, the purpose of the project is to clean up contaminated groundwater at the site.
The groundwater contaminants at the location consist of “solvents and diesel and gasoline type hydrocarbons.” Not much currently occupies the property, but in the past Schlumberger Limited operated an oilfield services facility on the property for approximately 29 years. That business was the source of the contaminants.
Dow and Schlumberger once had a joint oilfield services venture called Dowell Schlumberger. Moore noted that when the Glendive facility was in operation, Schlumberger ran the operation while Dow supplied the chemicals and services. Moore was uncertain when, exactly, Dow took over sole ownership of the property, but Schlumberger is managing the clean-up.
While the company is taking action to clean up the contaminated groundwater, an email statement from Schlumberger corporate officials described the contamination as “light” and said it poses no immediate or long-term threat to local residents or wildlife.
Moore agrees with that assessment.
“We have done our research, and we know it’s not immediately affecting any water supply,” he said.
Most of the contamination is confined to the property itself, though some chemicals have leached out towards the BNSF tracks, which is why workers had a drilling rig in operation across the street from the property earlier this week. Besides the hydrocarbons and solvents, Moore noted that there is also some shallow arsenic contamination in the soil directly beneath the old facility. That soil will be excavated to remediate that, he said.
The remediation process for the hydrocarbons and solvents are different for each. With the hydrocarbons, Moore said they will first perform a “shallow excavation” and then do “what we call soil mixing.” That process involves injecting the soil with hot steam, which helps break down hydrocarbon compounds. To get rid of the solvents in the groundwater, engineers will inject the groundwater with emulsified vegetable oil.
Once completed, Moore said the processes should take care of all the contamination.
“This is going to destroy the contamination in the groundwater,” he said, noting that the company is required by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to continue monitoring the groundwater after the work is complete to ensure it meets the state and federal standards.
The work itself will be going on for quite a while. Moore estimated that the process to clean up the hydrocarbon contaminants will take six to eight months, while the process to clean up the solvents will take about a year.
As for the future of the property, Schlumberger officials stated in their email that the intention is to sell the property once the clean-up process is complete.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.