PARKERSBURG -Shell Oil Products has applied to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in a voluntary remediation program to clean up two former oil-gathering facilities in Calhoun and Ritchie counties believed to have been constructed by the Eureka Pipeline Co.

The operation in Calhoun County is known as Cain Station and is on Calhoun County 12 near Richardson. It formerly contained two above-ground storage tanks and crude oil pumping facilities.

The facility in Ritchie County is known as Elm Run Station and is on Ritchie County 15, in Riverside. It formerly contained three buildings, five above-ground storage tanks, loading racks and crude oil pumping facilities.

Both sites are former operational oil-gathering facilities where crude oil from nearby production wells was transferred to tanks with the stored oil periodically transferred to a pipeline that runs through the area.

Shell is working with the Office of Environmental Remediation to address environmental conditions at the sites. The chemicals of concern at the sites are petroleum hydrocarbons associated with the crude oil pumping and storage activities. Additional chemicals of potential concern may be identified through further site assessment activities.

To establish appropriate clean-up standards, Shell and the state have negotiated voluntary remediation agreements, which include provisions for identifying human health and ecological risks associated with current and potential uses of the site. The agreements also include provisions for additional cleanup proposals, if necessary, to meet those standards.

Final reports will be submitted to the OER for review to confirm the work meets all applicable remediation standards.

A contact in the project is Andrew Robinson with the office of remediation in Parkersburg, 304-420-4635, or Steven Stinger, project manager, URS Corp., Gaithersburg, Md., 301-258-9780.