Weldcraft Steel & Marine, Bellingham

SITE BACKGROUND

The Weldcraft Steel & Marine site is located at Squalicum Way and Harbor Loop Drive in Bellingham, adjacent to Squalicum Harbor. The Weldcraft facility was established on the site in 1946 and has been primarily used as a boatyard. The current tenant, Seaview Boatyard North, is not associated with any contamination at the site. Sampling has been performed at the site over the past several years and the main contaminants of concern include metals, tributyltin and mercury in the sediment and diesel, gasoline constituents and lead in upland areas. Weldcraft is one of several cleanup sites identified in the Bellingham Bay Comprehensive Strategy, a bay-wide guidance document issued in 2000. The Comprehensive Strategy integrates sediment cleanup, control of pollution sources, habitat restoration and aquatic/shoreline land use on a bay-wide scale.

Ecology and the Port of Bellingham entered into a legal agreement (called an agreed order) to perform an interim action and a remedial investigation/feasibility study at the site. The documents were available for public review and comment through May 28, 2003. A public meeting was held to discuss the documents on May 15, 2003. The agreed order was signed by both Ecology and the Port in July 2003. The order outlines the work to be performed and ensures that the work is conducted in a timely fashion in accordance with all applicable regulations. For a brief overview of the project, click here to read the fact sheet.

Interim action activities commenced at the Site in September 2003 and were completed in May 2004. Confirmation sampling occurred in July 2004. Ecology and the Port are now working towards completing a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS). Ecology has received an Ecology Review Draft RI/FS and determined additional sampling is needed to fully characterize the nature and extent of contamination. The additional sampling is described in the Supplemental Remedial Investigation Work Plan and is scheduled for completion in May 2006.

Questions about the project can be directed to Mary O’Herron at the Department of Ecology Bellingham Field Office, 1204 Railroad Ave, Suite 200, Bellingham, 98225 or mohe461@ecy.wa.gov

Site Document Archive

Related Information

Additional Resources

 

  map showing site location as Whatcom County, WA

SITE INFORMATION

Facility Site ID: # 29583133

Location:
Bellingham, Whatcom County

Contacts:
Mary O'Herron, Site Manager
360/738-6246


Status: Ranked, Independent Remedial Action in Progress Get definitions of Status terminology