Clean team digs Gresham dirt<

The contaminated soil should be restored by summer and the property again offered for sale

by Eric Granson of the Oregonian staff

Spring 1995

Gresham: A downtown Gresham block once rejected as a site for a City Hall complex because of soil and groundwater contamination problems is being cleaned up to make it suitable for sale. Work on scooping out contaminated soil in the block bounded by Northeast Second and Thjird streets and Hood and Kelly avenues got underway this week.

The dirt is being removed from two huge holes and piled on the eastern end of the block, where it will be treated and returned to the holes.

ñThe soil and groundwater is very contaminated, as much as it could possibly be,î said Andree Pollock, underground storage tank cleanup specialist for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Large mounds of severely polluted gray soil attest to the extent of the pollution, Pollock said. Unpol