“It’ll be accomplished in two phases,” according to John Vial, Director of Jackson County Emergency Management.
He says phase one includes hauling away household hazardous waste. This includes pool chemicals… Batteries… And unexploded propane tanks.
Vial says this waste shouldn’t effect the surrounding residential areas.
“There’s not going to be secondary leaks, there is testing to make sure everything is going ok. The residents in the area should not be worried about the household hazardous waste.”
The environmental protection agency is working with Boise Cascade in Central Point, who’s facility is being used as a staging area to temporarily store the waste.
“Following that, we’ll do the big debris cleanup which is the ash, the trash and the burned materials of the site.”
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Lauren Wirtis says phase two will need to be handled more delicately, as ash and debris removal requires more sensitive planning.
“We’ll be insuring that the place that they’re staging all of these materials is protective of human health and the environment. The full scope of that is still being determined and worked out,” she says.
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