Sacramento Bee - Solar power helps clean up Davis Superfund site

A Superfund site in Davis has become the first federal groundwater cleanup project powered by solar energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.

EPA officials on Wednesday unveiled the Frontier Fertilizer Superfund site's new solar photovoltaic system, which will help power the treatment of contaminated groundwater beneath the east Davis neighborhood.

"Our goal should be to clean up the environment in the greenest way possible - and this new treatment plant sets the benchmark for future actions," said Jared Blumenthal, EPA's regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest.

Located on Second Street near residential neighborhoods and a new Target retail store, the eight-acre Superfund site was used to store a number of hazardous pesticides between the 1960s and the 1980s, said Bonnie Arthur, remedial project manager for the EPA's Superfund Division.

Frontier and its predecessor, the Barber and Rowland Co., dumped the pesticides into a pit and poured untreated wastewater into the ground, she said.

In 1986, a Frontier manager was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $10,000 after he pleaded guilty for his role in illegally disposing toxic wastes.

Financed by $2.5 million in federal stimulus money, the solar project is one of several innovative technologies that the EPA is using to reduce the time needed to clean up the Frontier site from 150 years to 30 years.

EPA officials said the solar arrays - which contain more than 300 panels - power the extraction of contaminated groundwater at a rate of 80 gallons per minute. The groundwater is then sent to special steel tanks that use carbon to remove the hazardous chemicals.

A second system, which is not powered by solar energy, uses special ground heating technology that bakes the soil and groundwater along a five-acre parcel to boiling temperatures. Sixteen extraction wells then collect the heated gases and liquids and send them to special tanks where they are treated.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, applauded the innovative use of green technology to quicken the cleanup efforts in the Davis neighborhood. "These are exactly the kinds of smart, targeted investments that will help create jobs, strengthen our economy and position our community as a leader in the clean energy industry," he said.