Georgia-Pacific plans to demolish several buildings near downtown Camas

The city of Camas has determined that a Georgia-Pacific plan to demolish several buildings the company is no longer using in its Camas paper mill operations, including the company’s Camas Business Center and nonwovens fabric manufacturing plant, has met the state’s Environmental Policy Act rules and will not have any significant adverse environmental impacts.

The demolition will remove nearly 100,000 square feet worth of structures on a site zoned for heavy industrial use near downtown Camas.

GP has slated a total of 11 buildings, nine of which were built between 1929 and 1970, in its demolition plan, including a three-story, 11,000-square-foot office building; a two-story, 31,360-square-foot development lab; a four-story, 31,000-square-foot nonwovens manufacturing building; a two-story water treatment building; two warehouses; a 3,500-square-foot library; and a one-story microscopy laboratory.

The buildings are located between Northwest Drake Street, Northwest Benton Street, Northwest 11th and 12th avenues, Division Street and Northwest Ash Street, with a postal address of 1101 N.W. Ash St., in Camas.

Some of the buildings face Northwest Sixth Avenue, which is designated as a “Gateway Corridor” to downtown Camas.

GP has said it plans to keep existing, mature tree cover on the property, including trees along Northwest Sixth and Northwest Seventh avenues.

The city’s SEPA determination of non-significance states that there are “very limited risks for toxic chemical exposure, fire, explosion, spill or hazardous waste as a result of this demolition,” adding that “no industrial chemicals are on site as industrial activities have ceased and any residuals were removed previously.”

The determination also states that an independent sampling of soils and groundwater at the proposed demolition site, conducted by the city of Camas in 2016, showed “no constituents of concerns, including metals or halogenated or non-halogenated organics” were detected at levels over the state’s industrial cleanup standards.

The demolition work is expected to take six to seven months, according to GP’s proposal.

All application materials are available for review upon request at the city of Camas’ Community Development Department.

Written comments regarding the city’s determination that the project will pose no adverse environmental impacts are due by 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17.

All comments should be emailed to communitydevelopment@cityofcamas.us or mailed to: City of Camas, SEPA Official, Community Development Department, 616 N.E. Fourth Ave., Camas, WA 98607.