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Harris Avenue Shipyard
Harris Avenue Shipyard
 SITE DESCRIPTION
The Harris Avenue Shipyard site is about 8 acres (4 acres of sediment in the
water and 4 acres on land) on the Bellingham Bay shoreline in Fairhaven.
Portions of the property at 201 Harris Ave. and surrounding areas were
contaminated by past shipbuilding and ship maintenance operations. The property
has been used as a shipyard since the early 1900s.
In 1966, the Port of Bellingham purchased the property and has leased it to
several different companies. All American Marine and Fairhaven Shipyard’s Puglia
Engineering now lease the property, but they did not cause the contamination.
The state also owns a portion of the site, which the port manages.
Preliminary sampling and investigations at the site have found contamination
that exceed standards under the state’s cleanup law and must be addressed.
Contaminants include heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), phthalates,
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs),
and petroleum hydrocarbons. Dissolved arsenic also may be present.
In 1998, the port began voluntarily sampling and analyzing site sediments. In
2003, Ecology and the port entered a legal agreement, called an agreed order, to
complete the sediment evaluation under Ecology’s direction.
Additional sampling of the upland area adjacent to the sediments showed
contamination in soils and groundwater. As a result, a new agreed order has been
drafted to address the contaminated soils and groundwater as well as the
contaminated sediment.
Site status – October 2009
Ecology and the Port of Bellingham have completed a
draft agreed order (PDF 160 KB) and
draft public participation plan
(PDF 520 KB) for the Harris Avenue Shipyard site.
The documents will be available for public review and comment from Oct. 30
– Nov. 30, 2009.
When final, the agreement will require the port to conduct an environmental
study of the site (called a remedial investigation), analyze cleanup options
(called a feasibility study), and develop a cleanup action plan with Ecology
oversight.
The new legal agreement will replace an existing agreed order for this site
that addresses only contaminated sediment in the water.
The revised draft public participation plan replaces the existing plan. It reflects the expanded scope of work
required under the new agreed order.
Next steps
2009 – Finalize new agreed order and revised public participation
plan.
2012 – Report on environmental study and analysis of cleanup options (RI/FS report).
2013 – Consent decree, including cleanup action plan.
2014 - Engineering design report and project permitting.
2015 - Construction.
2016 - Compliance monitoring.
Site Documents October 2009
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SITE INFORMATION
