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Sherwood outlines schedule and outreach for former tannery cleanup
Summary
City staff and consultants updated the Sherwood City Council on a federally funded cleanup of the former tannery site, describing contamination, an EPA-approved community involvement plan, a permit-driven timeline and coordination needs with sewer and stormwater projects that overlap the site.
Jason Waters, Sherwood city engineer, told the City Council at a April 1 work session that the city is preparing to excavate contaminated material from the former tannery site and to coordinate the cleanup with several overlapping infrastructure projects.
The cleanup is driven by an EPA-funded brownfields effort and an EPA-approved community involvement plan, Waters said, and the city’s consultant expects remedial design, permitting and bidding work this winter and excavation next summer if permitting proceeds without major delays.
The site contains buried tannery wastes and contaminated lagoon sediments, consultant John Kuiper of WSP USA said, adding that the contamination is mainly chromium in buried hides and some sediments. "There's metals contaminated hides. So chromium, a little bit of lead, but it's mostly chromium that was buried on the site," Kuiper said. Kuiper estimated the volume of material that will require removal at close to 30,000 cubic yards.
Why this matters: the tannery cleanup overlaps multiple planned projects that the city wants to advance, including Oregon Street improvements, a regional stormwater facility adjacent to Brickyard Terrace, and the Rock Creek sanitary trunk line (Rock Creek Phase B). Waters and Kuiper said cleaning the site is a prerequisite for some of those projects and for long-term site preparation tied to a potential public works facility the city has discussed.
Timeline, permits and outreach
Waters and Kuiper said the city completed required kickoff meetings with EPA and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and has an EPA-approved community involvement plan. The plan calls for outreach via social media, the city website, flyers, work sessions and in-person outreach at community events (Cruise-in, Robin Hood Festival, Music on the Green) so neighbors are informed about truck routes, excavation and restoration.
Kuiper said the team will sample for PFOS per DEQ direction and will hire an archeology firm for monitoring under the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) requirements before earthwork begins. He outlined a permit sequence that includes a joint permit application, site development and erosion control permits and said project design and remedial action planning will follow sampling. "If there's no hiccups, we hope to basically be moving to bidding documents, contractor selection shortly after the first of next year. Hopefully, we'll be doing the excavation of the contaminated media next summer," Kuiper said.
Coordination with other projects and costs
City staff emphasized coordination with Clean Water Services (CWS) on relocating the sanitary trunk line out of the floodplain and potentially combining trunk-line work with the cleanup to limit duplicate excavation. Waters said the city is discussing placing the sewer trunk line inside the existing berm/lagoon footprint to avoid manholes located in the floodplain.
The presenters said the site restoration plan will affect the location and design of a regional trail, stormwater facilities, and any future public works buildings. Kuiper noted the public works facility the city has considered would likely cost in the range of $30,000,000, a figure he said the city does not yet have funding to fully meet. Disposal of excavated soils and solids is expected to be at regional landfills; presenters said Hillsboro-area landfills are the current expected destinations unless sampling finds otherwise.
Community involvement and next steps
Waters said the city will keep the council and neighbors updated quarterly and return with refined maps and site plans as sampling and permit work proceed. Kuiper said sampling results later in the month will refine excavation maps and quantities and that Department of State Lands (DSL) and other regulators will have a significant role in mitigation and final site configuration.
Council and staff direction
Councilors and staff discussed sequencing the sewer and cleanup work to avoid double excavation if the CWS schedule does not align with the EPA grant timeline. Waters said the city has a four-year grant window and is monitoring schedule risk. Kuiper and Waters confirmed that the community involvement plan is posted for review.
Ending
Council members did not take formal action at the work session. Staff said they will return with updates as permitting, sampling and design work advance and will continue community outreach in the months before excavation.
