Cleanups

Fruit Valley Neighborhood – Cadet and Swan Cleanup – Opportunity for Public Comment

The Port of Vancouver is providing this update of our progress to cleanup groundwater contamination in the vicinity of the Fruit Valley Neighborhood. We have been working under the oversight of the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) to cleanup groundwater contamination associated with the Cadet Manufacturing and former Swan Manufacturing Company (Swan) sites. Groundwater cleanup has been very successful, and the Port of Vancouver has submitted a draft plan for final cleanup of these sites located near the Fruit Valley Neighborhood. The locations of these sites are shown below.

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Background Information

Although contamination occurred many years before the port owned the properties, cleanup of the Cadet and former Swan sites is a top priority for the Port of Vancouver. The contamination is related to the use of solvent-based cleaning products at the sites by previous operators. Cleanup has been ongoing with oversight from Ecology since 1998, and these efforts have been very successful.

Cleanup actions have included:

• Soil cleanup
• Groundwater cleanup
• Residential indoor air cleanup

Sitewide Groundwater Cleanup

The port constructed a groundwater pump and treat system that began operating in June 2009. The system pumps groundwater that’s still contaminated after completion of the other cleanup actions summarized above, and conveys it to a nearby treatment system. Treated water is then discharged to the Columbia River consistent with state and federal environmental regulations. Since June 2009, the system has:

• Extracted and treated 14.9 billion gallons of groundwater
• Removed approximately 1,325 pounds of contaminants

Pump and treat system located at Port of Vancouver cleans contaminated groundwater in Fruit Valley neighborhood

Results

The 2022 data indicate that the treatment system and other actions have cleaned up the shallow groundwater under the Fruit Valley Neighborhood. Shallow groundwater contamination is now confined to a small area under the former Swan property (see the map above).

Ecology would like your comments on the proposed final cleanup plan!

The Port of Vancouver is now working with Ecology to finalize the cleanup action plan, which includes shutting down the pump and treat system and continuing groundwater monitoring. The very low levels of remaining contamination on the Swan property will degrade naturally over time, without risk to human health or the environment. Ecology is inviting the public to review and comment on the following documents:

• Agreed Order 21295
• State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) checklist
• Remedial Investigation Reports
• Draft Cleanup Feasibility Study
• Draft Cleanup Action Plan (dCAP)

The documents are available for public review from June 1 through July 3 at:

Vancouver Community Library
901 C Street
Vancouver, WA  98660
360-906-5000

Comments can be submitted via 

For more information, please refer to the Washington State Department of Ecology project website.