VESTRA staff initiated an integrated program in 1997 to address separate environmental issues at four nearby wood product facilities in Northern California.

The environmental issues included pentachlorophenol-contaminated soil at two former sawmills, an abandoned log deck and sorting yard at a third facility, and an inactive landfill. The five-year project involved developing and testing procedures to reduce pentachlorophenol levels in soil to acceptable levels using wood fines, excavating more than 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, using wood fines from the log deck and sorting yard to treat the contaminated soil, and using the treated soil as cover material to formally close a wood waste landfill. The entire project was successfully completed in 2001, and the comprehensive solution saved the landowner more than $1,000,000.

The project was conducted with the approval of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and local air quality management district.