Stillwater Holdings Chevron cleanup site, Walla Walla

The order requires Stillwater Holdings Chevron to continue work to reduce harmful vapors and remove contaminated water from nearby buildings until a permanent treatment system is installed. The order went into effect on June 18, the day we issued it. We planned a 60-day comment period to allow public input for more than 30 days after people receive the notice in the mail.

The Public Participation Plan describes how you will be informed and can comment during the cleanup process.

You can learn more in the notice that was mailed to the community and our news release.

Learn more

• Review the Enforcement Order and Public Participation Plan.
• Visit our Stillwater Holdings Chevron cleanup site page.

Next steps

Ecology will consider and respond to all comments we receive during this public comment period. We will post our response to comments document on our Stillwater Holdings Chevron cleanup site page and send the document to people who submitted comments.

Site history

The incident began last September when the Marcus Whitman Hotel in downtown Walla Walla was evacuated due to gasoline odors. Testing identified potentially harmful vapors and gasoline in the basement, and in two nearby buildings. The buildings were ventilated to eliminate the risk of an explosion, and the buildings’ drainage systems, also known as sumps, were pumped to reduce vapor concentrations. 

An investigation found that gasoline from a Stillwater Holdings’ underground tank had leaked and was pooling in adjacent buildings’ sumps. The leaking tank was taken out of service and has been emptied.

The site continues to impact two neighboring properties. In May, Stillwater Holdings told Ecology that they could pay for little or no more work, and that Ecology would need to take over. The enforcement order ensures that work will not stop while financial issues are resolved. Ecology is preparing to take over and fund cleanup when Stillwater has exhausted all its funds because the site poses significant risks to the community.