The plant opened in August 1994, after ground water was contaminated at the company's former location on Northeast 47th Avenue. Chromic acid and other chemicals are not leaving the plant. The steps Ecology will require the company to take are to prevent problems from happening in the future. The vault is a backup to the plant's main system for collecting spills that may occur from the plating tanks. The underground vault is designed to provide a watertight seal between the plating plant and ground water.
Ecology believes the vault has been breached and ground water can now seep into it.
On the outside, underground, a heavy plastic liner runs underneath the vault and up along the concrete walls. The lower liner also encloses a monitoring well. The well was placed in dry gravel and is checked every three months to find out if any liquid has leaked from the vault. During a routine inspection in June 1995, an Ecology employee saw that a bubble about two feet wide had formed inside the vault, between the concrete and the upper liner. Ecology thought the bubble was caused by water left on the floor during construction.