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Department of Ecology News Release - February 25, 2011
11-065
OLYMPIA – The public is invited to review and comment on draft documents related to two cleanup sites on Port Gamble Bay on the Kitsap Peninsula.
The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) is working with property owners, area tribes, state agencies, and others to help shape cleanups at the two sites:
Ecology staff will meet on March 9, 2011, with area residents to talk about the draft investigation and cleanup alternatives reports for both sites. A community meeting will be held at Hood Canal Vista Pavilion on NE View Drive in Port Gamble. An open house will begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by a 5:30 p.m. presentation and an informal question-and-answer session.
Sawmill site
The Pope & Talbot sawmill operated from1853 to 1995. The operation included sawmill buildings, two woodchip loading facilities, a log transfer facility, and areas for log rafting and storage. After the sawmill shut down, the upper portion of the site was leased for log sorting, wood chipping, materials handling, and marine research.
In 1985, Pope & Talbot transferred ownership of the uplands and adjacent tidelands to Pope Resources. Later, Olympic Property Group – a Pope Resources subsidiary – began operating and managing these lands.
Manufacturing activities released pollutants, including petroleum hydrocarbons, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs) and metals. Some of these contaminants were found in soil, groundwater and marine sediments around the site. Wood waste also littered the marine sediments and the bed of Port Gamble Bay.
Some cleanup work was done between 2002 and 2007. That work removed about 26,000 tons of soil and 31,000 cubic yards of wood debris from in-water sediments at the site.
Leased Area
The Port Gamble Leased Area site includes the central bay, parts of the eastern shoreline and two areas along the southwest shoreline. These two areas include property Pope & Talbot leased from the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from 1974 to 1995, and a former log transfer facility. Activities at these areas deposited wood waste on the bed of Port Gamble Bay.
Ecology found the highest accumulations of wood waste along the west side of the bay from south of the former sawmill through the former leased area. Wood waste also exists along the shore on the east side of the bay, near a former rail line.
Site cleanup
Ecology identified Port Gamble Bay as a high-priority, “early-action” cleanup area under the Puget Sound Initiative (PSI). That’s an effort by local, tribal, state and federal governments, business, agricultural and environmental communities, scientists, and the public to restore and protect the health of the Sound.
Ecology, Pope Resources and Olympic Property Group entered into a legal agreement called an agreed order to address pollution at the sawmill site. The agreement outlined reports of investigations of the sites and reports of possible cleanup work that could be done on the sites. Ecology is leading work on the leased area as part of the baywide cleanup project.
Cleaning up these sites will help to reduce pollution and restore Puget Sound habitat and shorelines. Information from a bay-wide Cultural Resources Overview, which identifies and maps areas of historical, archaeological, and cultural resources within the project area, was considered in the evaluation selection of the preferred alternatives.
At the sawmill site, proposed work includes a combination of soil removal, in-water dredging, removing pilings and other structures, installing controls to stop contamination from spreading, and monitoring.
For the leased area, Ecology proposes enhanced monitored natural recovery. This method would use ongoing, natural processes to contain or reduce contamination in sediment over time. In some locations, long-term monitoring would be used for up to 20 years.
How to comment
You can send comments to Ecology on the draft documents from Monday, Feb. 28, through March 29. Here’s how to view copies of the draft documents:
Here’s how you can submit comments:
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Media Contact: Seth Preston, Ecology communications manager, 360-407-6848; 360-584-5744 cell; Seth.Preston@ecy.wa.gov
Read more about the Puget Sound Initiative and Ecology’s high-priority sites (http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/psi/overview/psi_baywide.html)
Check out ECOconnect, Ecology’s blog (http://ecologywa.blogspot.com/)
Follow Ecology on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ecologywa)
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
