POWELL BUTTE — Cleanup efforts are nearly complete on a 600-acre Powell Butte ranch where more than 3,000 tons of formaldehyde and other hazardous wastes were illegally dumped.

But many neighbors in the area are still concerned about potential health risks and lost property value.

Earlier this week, dozens of residents turned out for a meeting called by representatives for the property’s owner, Dennis Beetham, and his formaldehyde manufacturing company, D.B. Western. The meeting was intended to provide information about cleanup efforts on the ranch on Northwest McDaniel Road, but it often became heated as residents demanded more information about how and why so much waste was disposed of on the property and why they weren’t notified sooner.

“We find them incredulous,” said Nancy Knoche, who attended the meeting and whose ranch lies directly east of the Beetham property. “I’m sure the Department of Environmental Quality followed state standards, but the other (cleanup crews) were contracted by Beetham. We felt no more assured when we got out of the meeting — we felt we were thrown a bone, patted on the head like a dog, and told, ‘now go away.’”

State officials and the environmental experts hired by Beetham, and supervised by the DEQ, are now trying to answer some of the residents’ questions and say they’re still working to ensure that the site is safe by testing local wells and cleaning up the last of the hazardous materials. But like the cleanup, easing neighbors’ fears will likely be a lengthy and complicated process.

The timeline

Starting in September 2007, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued Beetham and D.B. Western three notices for a host of environmental offenses, including illegal disposal of hazardous wastes, open burning of prohibited materials, failure to make a hazardous waste determination, illegal disposal of hazardous wastes and industrial solid wastes in an unlined cinder pit, placing wastes where they were likely to enter state waters and operating a hazardous waste disposal site without a permit.

Beetham’s attorney, Rick Martson, told the residents he could not discuss the circumstances that led to the disposal.

Jeff Ingalls, a natural resource specialist with the DEQ’s hazardous waste program, said state officials were tipped off after Beetham’s wife, Kathy, called in a team from Prineville-based SMAF Environmental to conduct cleanup work on a cinder pit on the property in September.

When the crew from SMAF Environmental arrived, they noticed some unusual materials and notified the DEQ. After laboratory testing revealed the presence of formaldehyde and related materials, officials met to determine a cleanup plan.

In early October, a team comprised of DEQ officials and representatives from three environmental engineering and cleanup companies began an emergency cleanup on the site. After discussing the location of the materials with Beetham and several employees of the ranch, crews from the companies got to work digging up the dirt with an excavator and hauling it away in dump trucks.

Ingalls said officials knew they’d be dealing with a large amount of hazardous material but were surprised by just how much turned out to be buried in several cinder pits.

“We thought there were going to be small sacks of fertilizer,” he said. “But instead of 40 — or 50 — pound bags, it ended up to be in one-ton supersacks.”

Some of the “supersacks,” large-capacity bags made of a polyplastic material, had split because of the weight of their contents, Ingalls said. As workers dug deeper and deeper — eventually to about 35 feet — they stopped frequently to document what they’d found before it was hauled away.

From the first and second pits, they recovered 1,190 tons of urea formaldehyde resin and other formaldehyde-based materials. From the third, they recovered 410 tons of ammonia. The remaining 1,885 tons of recovered material included processing equipment, tires, scrap metal, garbage and soil that were believed to have been contaminated. In total, 3,485 tons material were removed during almost two months of work.

The materials

During and after the immediate cleanup process, officials tested repeatedly to check the levels of formaldehyde in the water and soil. Keeping track of those levels is important because of the materials involved in the dump.

Formaldehyde, a colorless gas that can be combined with other materials, occurs naturally. It is also produced by sources like power plants and manufacturing facilities and has been linked to respiratory problems and higher incidences of cancer among people exposed to it over an extended period of time.

David Farrer, a public health toxicologist with the Oregon Public Health Division, said problems usually occur in people who work with the material on a day-to-day basis.

“Formaldehyde is a carcinogen if you are around it for extended periods of time,” he said. “It’s usually people who work in chemical industries that have higher incidences of cancer of the nose and throat.”

But on the Powell Butte property, DEQ officials said they’ve done a cleanup and can no longer detect formaldehyde or other potentially hazardous chemicals. At the Monday meeting, several neighbors expressed concerns about the potential threats posed by formaldehyde in the air and water, particularly as the materials were hauled in and out.

Farrer, who was not part of the cleanup crew, said it would be unlikely that the materials had affected the groundwater or were spread in the air in high enough doses to do any damage.

“The thing to keep in mind in toxicology is that the dose makes the poison,” Farrer said. “Those levels would probably be too low to have an effect. … Even if there was some (hazardous materials) getting off the trucks and into the air it would have been for a short period of time. … The duration of exposure probably wouldn’t have added up to a high enough dose to cause anything. It’s known that formaldehyde is a toxic chemical, so I’m sure that if (cleanup workers) followed standard operating procedures, it would have been pretty well contained on the trucks.”

Ingalls said the cleanup crew found most of the materials well above the 15-foot level, but dug to 35 feet. Most of the local wells are much deeper, past the 100-foot level.

But many residents are still not satisfied. Two sealed tanks containing solid formaldehyde remain on the ranch, according to the DEQ, and residents say many of their wells have not been tested.

At the meeting, several residents questioned the credibility of the cleanup crews — SMAF, Anchor Environmental and PBS Engineering and Environmental — which were retained by Beetham’s company but supervised by the DEQ.

Some, including Ray and Lita Kilpatrick, who live directly north of the Beetham property, believe that their health has been adversely affected by the dumping. The Kilpatricks said Wednesday that not enough has been done to ensure neighbors that their air, water and land is safe.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence — I think there’s a direct relationship between the respiratory problems I have and the gases they have (dumped),” Ray Kilpatrick said. “What disappointed me so much that there was no mention ever made of any side effects happening. … It requires some good research and it won’t be easy. I have the feeling that three-fourths of the people sitting in that (meeting) room were dissatisfied with their cover-up.”

The future

At the meeting, officials said they plan to test neighbors’ wells at the expense of Beetham and D.B. Western and will continue to check in until they believe all materials have been removed.

Martson, Beetham’s attorney, said the final report on the dumping and cleanup should be completed within the next two to three weeks. At that point, it will be sent to DEQ officials, who will check for information gaps and post it online for public comment.

Once the report is complete, it will be sent to the DEQ’s Office of Compliance and Enforcement, where officials can decide whether civil penalties will be issued against Beetham and D.B. Western. Jeff Bachman, a DEQ environmental law specialist, said Beetham faces potential maximum fines of $10,000 per violation for every day the violation occurred. But because the eventual decision is based on a matrix that takes into account other factors, like the seriousness of the violation, its impact and the history of the person or business in question, any fine would likely be less severe.

The DEQ has also made the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division aware of the situation, Ingalls said.

The cleanup and the concerns of local residents will continue, but Tom Kichenmaster, the SMAF Environmental project manager who oversaw the work, said he’s satisfied with what’s been done so far, though nothing is ever certain.

“We went above and beyond what was required and hauled off a lot of cinder,” he said. “Can I guarantee it 100 percent? Absolutely not, because in hazmat (hazardous materials) there is no 100 percent. You just don’t know. If I had been in those people’s shoes, I would have had the same concerns. … But I think we did everything possible to mitigate the issues.”