Environmental Investigation at Food Products Facility

Mount Vernon, Washington

TRC provided environmental investigation services to support our Client who purchased the food products, fermentation tanks, and ancillary equipment from an existing facility in Mount Vernon, Washington. Since the mid-1990s, this facility produced pickles, peppers, and sauerkraut. The food products and tanks were to be transported to another facility in Stockton, California. Prior to transport, the food products were transferred to smaller plastic totes so the tanks could be emptied for transport or recycling.

TRC conducted a baseline environmental site assessment (ESA) to document the physical and chemical site conditions prior to the transfer and transport of the food products, brine, and fermentation tanks. The baseline ESA identified multiple historical releases of process fluids in the form of brine and vinegar have occurred to the environment, which was documented by extensive shallow soil sampling and surface water sampling. Baseline ESA analytical results demonstrated elevated concentrations of chloride, nitrate, potassium, salinity, sodium, total phosphorus, and total organic nitrogen. TRC was also tasked to research any permits necessary for the transfer and any best management practices (BMPs) that should be followed during food product and brine transfer and transport operations.

The post-transfer ESA was performed by sampling the same locations for the same set of constituents and using statistical methods to evaluate the results and determine if incidental small spills that may have occurred during product transfer caused any measureable change to the environmental conditions of the facility. Comparisons of baseline data to post-transfer data indicate that Kruger’s implementation of the BMPs for product transfer and general good housekeeping practices at the Facility decreased the incidental releases of brine and other process fluids to the ground surface relative to the higher volume of releases that occurred during historical (pre-Kruger) operations at the Facility, which resulted in a net improvement in soil and surface water quality at the Facility.