Whidbey Island company signs deal to clean up China's polluted rivers, soil

A Whidbey Island entrepreneur has signed a multi-million-dollar deal to license his environmental technology to begin cleaning up China's heavily contaminated rivers and soil.

Tim Wandell, founder and president of WI Environmental, said his company will begin exporting its product to a company in China, Shenzhen Waste Management, for pollution-remediation projects in southern China.

For six years, WI Environmental has been testing its solution in China for removing pollutants such as hexavalent chromium, a heavy metal byproduct of manufacturing, Wandell said.

He calls the product XR-88, for "extreme remediation" and the number eight, which is considered lucky in Chinese.

China is living with the consequences of its manufacturing boom. As its factories churned out goods for the world market, they also produced dangerous byproducts, including heavy metals, poisons and other toxic chemicals that have now permeated much of the ground and water.

Wandell spent five years in China and saw much of the pollution first hand. "Circuit-board factories, chip factories, all types of places are loaded with contaminants," he said. "Look out the back side of a factory and here's this huge mountain of the stuff."

Hexavalent chromium, which looks like a brownish yellow substance, is a known carcinogen and has been detected in the food supply, he said, adding that water from a river in Hunan province was found to be 95 percent polluted.

WI Environmental makes XR-88 from a blend of powders at a facility in a southern U.S. state, which Wandell said he does not want to identify for fear the formula could be stolen.

The company can produce 100 tons a day and ships the product in one-ton sacks, he said.

"We would love to do it here, out of Seattle or Tacoma," he said, where the company's staff of five is located.

When the product is applied to a contaminated site, it breaks down and encapsulates the metals, producing clear water and a soil or sludge that is inert and benign, he said.

WI Environmental also signed an exclusive licensing agreement with a South African company, African Alternative Technologies, to address acid mine drainage. Wandell, who grew up in Burien, thinks the solution could also help boatyards comply with clean-water regulations, and remove contamination from Puget Sound.

The company has been testing its solution on stormwater runoff with various companies, including CSR Marine, and applying to the state Department of Ecology to sell the product here.

"I live on the water so I've seen the effects of what we're doing to the Sound," Wandell said. "We know our system can make an enormous difference."

Kristi Heim: 206-464-2718 or kheim@seattletimes.com