A Seattle environmental company is the apparent low bidder for a contract to demolish structures and do cleanup work within the next month at the former stockyards property in East Spokane, where Spokane County plans to build a waste-water treatment plant.


The company, NRC Environmental Services Inc., bid about $260,000 to demolish two 300-square-foot garages at the site, which is located near Freya Street and Trent Avenue.


The work also includes filling in old water vaults and manholes on the roughly 20-acre site, removing old bricks and concrete chunks from the soil, and, if needed, hauling contaminated material to a hazardous-waste disposal site, says Bruce Rawls, utilities director. The contaminated material is concentrated in piles of debris at the site, and not below the surface of the ground, he says.


All of the work should be completed by December, Rawls says.


Rob Lindsay, the countys water resources manager, says low levels of chemical elements, such as arsenic, cadmium, and chromium, have been found in soil at the stockyards property.


Those levels are marginally above the Washington state cleanup standards, he says, but that soil would be hauled away to a hazardous-waste site if soil readings warrant it after the larger chunks of material are removed.


Rawls says the county expects to begin construction on a waste-water treatment plant there in 2009, with the plant to be operational by the end of 2011. That facility would serve the cities of Spokane Valley and Millwood, as well as some other areas of Spokane County not served by the city of Spokane and Liberty Lake treatment plants.


Rawls says estimates of nearly $100 million made three years ago to construct the plant no longer are accurate.


He says inflation, the increased cost of materials, and advanced treatment-plant technology will push the projected cost higher. He says the county will have a new cost estimate available by the end of the year.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.