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Comment period

Frank Wear Cleaners, Yakima

Consent Decree available for review and comment

Sept. 19, 2025, 12 a.m. - Oct. 20, 2025, 11:59 p.m. PT

Comment on a legal agreement requiring studies and cleanup at this contaminated site.

We invite your comments on the draft Consent Decree. This document is a court-approved legal agreement between Ecology and the property owners. It requires the property owners to clean up the site, and settles their liability. It also lays out a plan and schedule for cleanup. This decree does not settle the liability of any other potentially liable persons.

Background

The Frank Wear Cleaners site was a dry cleaner that operated from the 1940s to 2000 in a commercial area of  Yakima. Over the years releases of the dry-cleaning solvent PCE (perchloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene) contaminated soil and groundwater at the site. PCE is harmful to humans. PCE vapors can rise from the soil and groundwater and affect indoor air.

In 1994, workers removed 310 tons of contaminated soil from the site. In 2001 workers demolished the building, and removed another 432 tons of contaminated soil.

In 2011, Ecology learned that a daycare operated next door to the original drycleaner location. We sampled the air inside the daycare and found PCE vapors. In 2012, workers installed a soil vapor extraction system to prevent these harmful vapors from getting into the building. It removes and captures PCE vapors before they can enter the daycare. That system is still running. Sampling shows it is effectively protecting air at the daycare.

More work needs to be done at the site to clean up soil and groundwater contamination to protect the health of the community.

The draft consent decree

The draft consent decree will require the property owners to:

  • Maintain and operate the soil vapor extraction system, and to expand it if necessary.
  • Monitor groundwater
  • Fill in data gaps with more environmental studies of the site, and use the results to update the feasibility study (a feasibility study is a comparison of cleanup options).
  • Draft a final cleanup action plan based on the updated information.
  • Keep Ecology informed of changes at the site.

Ecology will consider all comments received during the comment period. If significant changes are required, we will hold another comment period. We will hold a public meeting if 10 or more people request it. If no significant changes are made, the consent decree will become final. We will ask for public comments on the draft feasibility study and draft cleanup action plan when they are complete.

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Comment online

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Comment by mail

Rachel Caron
1250 W. Alder Street
Union Gap, WA 98903
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Questions

Rachel Caron
Site Manager
Rachel.Caron@ecy.wa.gov
509-907-1353

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