Wrangell Sentinel -

Ongoing efforts to remove contaminated soil from the site of the Byford junkyard are about a third of the way complete, according to Sally Schlichting with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The soil is being packed into large bags specially designed to carry soil and is being shipped to a landfill in Oregon.

Schlichting explained that the soil at the junkyard site was heavily contaminated with lead, as well as with some petroleum and trace amounts of other chemicals. The lead was neutralized, she said, with a chemical called EcoBond.

“The phosphates bond with [the lead...