EPA grants $300K for brownfield cleanup
Officials will make progress in cleaning up toxic waste at the site of the former pulp mill on the Samoa Peninsula with a new $300,000 investment from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Business development on the peninsula slowed after the industrial pulp mill closed in 2010. The site — ruled a brownfield by health officials — is plagued by hazardous lead material.
The new federal investment will go toward cleaning up the mess. Of the EPA’s funding, about $200,000 is in the form of a grant to the Timber Heritage Association (a local logging group) and the other $100,000 is part of a revolving loan fund that Humboldt County will begin to repay in 10 years.
“This EPA revolving loan fund has allowed us to abate all the lead-based paint that exists on the existing homes and structures,” Chris Dart of Danco Communities, which manages housing on the Samoa Peninsula, said in a news briefing Thursday morning.
“These funds will allow the nonprofit Timber Heritage Association to take ownership of the property, clean up the contamination and allow the public to access this historical, cultural resource,” an EPA release stated Thursday.
Humboldt County Supervisor Virginia Bass, whose 4th District includes the peninsula, said the brownfield cleanup will bring “more jobs, more tourism, more housing” to Samoa.
“The list goes on and on,” Bass said at Thursday’s briefing. “It’s a really good thing for our community.”
Nordic Aquafarms, a company proposing to build a $400 million land-based fish farm at the peninsula, raised issues with brownfield toxicity at the site last year. Part of the cleanup will help make Nordic’s and other projects possible, a company official said Thursday.
“Thanks to the previous EPA’s funding and cleanup activities and the additional EPA assessments in addition to our own funding, we were able to determine that the site would be appropriate for our use,” Marianne Naess, Nordic’s commercial director, said at the briefing.
The pulp mill closed in 2010. Evergreen Pulp, Inc., which owned and operated the mill, left behind millions of dollars in environmental waste.
In 2014, the EPA led cleanup efforts for millions of gallons of toxic liquors and chemicals at the site, but hazardous materials remain.