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Rail yard cleanup may start mid-year Wednesday Jan 25, 2017 at 3:48 PM Jan 25, 2017 at 3:48 PM By Julie Akins for the Mail Tribune After more than a decade of reviews and consideration, a cleanup of the old Union Pacific rail yard north of A Street in Ashland is expected to start at mid-year. The project is expected to take a year and will cost more than $1 million to excavate about 20 acres of contaminated land. Engineers and the Department of Environmental Quality presented the plan to residents last Thursday night at the Ashland Community Center. Among the toxins embedded in the soil are lead, arsenic, petroleum hydrocarbons and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. The plan calls for excavating 17,500 cubic yards of contaminated soil from two areas that include former holding ponds. The process began in the 1990s when investigators discovered the pollution. Since then Union Pacific has worked with the city of Ashland and DEQ to figure out the best ways to clean up the land and sell it. The future use of the land is unknown. “When a development is proposed, we’ll look at it again,” said DEQ Project Manager Greg Aitken. “Nothing is decided or penciled out. It could be a risk for a playground or housing development.” If a developer wants to build there, it would be their responsibility to clean it to the standards necessary for that use, Aitken said. Ashland has zoned the land for mixed use with residential on parts of the property, but whoever buys the land will be responsible for garnering approval from the city to use the land for a particular purpose. If it’s a housing development, further cleanup would be required, according to DEQ. Citizen questions centered around groundwater contamination and the transportation of contaminated dirt. “You would have to come into direct contact, actually ingesting the soil. If someone is not living on the property, they are not in danger,” said Susan Turnblom, DEQ toxicologist. The plan involves transporting contaminated soil by rail line. It will be wrapped, sealed and transported to Price, Utah, where there is an approved landfill, according to DEQ. Clean soil would come in by truck gradually over time to prevent too many trucks on city streets at once. “We’ll bring it in in stages to avoid large amounts of trucks with dirt,” said Aitken. Water trucks will be used on site to minimize dust, and workers will monitor the water to make sure it doesn’t pond or run off site. Resident Shannon Stuver said she’d like to see more affordable housing built on the lot. “I’d be interested in knowing how the city is going to oversee the use of the property and if they plan to use it for more housing. If they need more housing, they’ll have to go back in. Why not clean it all up now?” Resident Amy Patton, who asked questions about possible contamination to nearby land, said she was encouraged by the information and relieved that the land could be cleaned to a higher level if required. “They have more data than they originally presented. I’m glad to know they can open it back up if they need to.” The citizen comment period for the project ends Jan. 31. Comments can be sent to DEQ Project Manager Greg Aitken at [email protected] — Email Ashland freelance writer Julie Akins at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/@julieakins.