September 28, 2020

Community Safety is Top Priority during Stockpile Removal

Protecting the Brawley community and project workers is our focus as cleanup work gets going on the former PureGro property. We take safety and regulatory compliance very seriously in all that we do, including these daily activities:

• Safety meetings at the beginning of each day with employees and contractors to reinforce everyone’s responsibility to work safely and do a great job in monitoring, trucking, and protecting the community. Coronavirus protocols are reinforced during these meetings, including a health check before reporting to work, physical distancing, use of face coverings (when physical distancing is not possible), and adhering to all county and statewide requirements to protect workers and the community.
• Dust monitoring every day to make sure the project complies with regulatory requirements and does not generate excessive dust beyond the property boundary. Our approach to protecting the community is to actively monitor and prevent dust in the first place. To make sure our approach is working, we do two kinds of monitoring every day: 1) specially trained technicians visually monitor dust to comply with Imperial County Air Pollution Control District rules, and 2) although not required by DTSC or the county air district, we also voluntarily use monitoring devices at several perimeter locations around the property.
• Dust control such as keeping the work area wet, being careful as soil is picked up and loaded into trucks, covering all loads, and washing wheels as trucks exit. If winds get too strong (sustained winds above 25 mph), we pause work until the wind speed slows. Both DTSC and the county air district have visited the site to oversee our dust control and monitoring activities.
• Truck and traffic safety includes use of a truck route that avoids the nearby neighborhood, parks, and schools as much as possible. To limit the time trucks are in the neighborhood, dump trucks wait in the contractor’s yard about 30 minutes away rather than park or idle on River Drive.

In this photo, contractors are spreading gravel to create an access road for trucks during loading of soil from the stockpile. Water trucks keep the road and soil wet to prevent dust. All loaded dump trucks are covered, checked, and wheels cleaned before leaving the property.

If you have questions or concerns during stockpile removal, call the community information line at 760-602-3830. Please leave a brief message, including your name and phone number, and a project representative will reply promptly.

September 2020

Mobilization for Soil Stockpile Removal to Begin September 8

After technicians do preliminary work the week of August 31, heavy equipment and work crews will begin to arrive at the PureGro property on September 8, 2020. Work will typically begin at 6:00am and end at 5:00pm, Monday through Friday.

Worker and community safety are top priorities during stockpile removal. Dust control is a major focus as stockpile soil is scooped up by excavators and loaded into trucks. Water is sprayed to wet the soil and haul road, and dust monitoring is done during all active work hours. Each loaded truck is covered and then follows a designated route on its way to a licensed landfill in Arizona. If winds become too strong at a sustained 25 mph or more, work will pause until wind speed goes down.

About 850 truck loads are needed to remove the stockpile, which is expected to be complete by the end of the year. The remainder of the project approved by DTSC in the June 2020 Remedial Action Plan is expected to move forward in 2021, following engineering design and other planning.

If you have questions or concerns during stockpile removal, call the community information line at 760-602-3830. Please leave a brief message, including your name and phone number, and a project representative will reply promptly.