MARCH 27, 2015
PENDLETON, OREGON (AP)
An Oregon couple took it all in stride as they watched the
demolition of a house they owned for nearly 30 years. Demolition began Thursday on a Pendleton couple’s
home in the wake of a local company dumping 150 gallons of diesel into their
basement.
Brent Merriman told the East Oregonian newspaper
(http://is.gd/QvOI10 ) that he and Michele Lowary moved out of the house and
rented a place across the street last year after a worker accidentally dumped
150 gallons of diesel into their basement.
On Friday, Merriman and Lowary watched as workers in two
excavators smashed their home in Pendleton and dropped chunks of it into a
semitrailer.
Merriman said the materials filled two trailer loads on
Thursday, the first day of the demolition.
A Pendleton Grain Growers (PGG) employee made the mistake
Nov. 24, 2014. A spokeswoman for the agricultural co-operative said after the
incident that the driver was confused about where to deliver the fuel. The
house used heating oil some years ago, and the driver pumped the diesel into
the basement.
She said the company would work with the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality and contractors to clean up the mess, and Pendleton
Grain Growers would take steps to make sure such a mistake is not repeated.
The co-op’s insurance is covering the cost of demolishing
the home and building a new, larger one in the same spot. Rebuilding, however,
won’t start until the site is tested for contamination.
This was the second diesel spill at a Pendleton-area home in
less than a year. A semi crashed March 1, 2014, on Highway 37, about a
mile-and-half north of the city. Its trailer broke off, landed in a gully and
spilled 5,000 gallons of diesel near a 109-year-old farm home.
That led to the removal of 20,000 cubic feet of earth, and
the demolition of the old house.
Source, http://www.eastoregonian.com