What's New!
- Public Comment Period from May 20 – June 21,
2013
For the
Jorgensen Forge Site on an Agreed Order
Amendment.
- Public Comment Period from April 29 – May 30,
2013
For the
South Park Landfill Site on an Agreed Order
Amendment and SEPA Determination of
Non-significance.
- Public comment period from February 28 – June 13,
2013
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
Department of Ecology are holding a public comment
period on plans for the cleanup of Lower Duwamish
Waterway sediments.
Documents available for public review and comment:
-
Ecology’s Source Control Strategy
Ecology’s long term plan for reducing sources of
pollution and how the government agencies will work
together
- EPA’s
Proposed Plan for sediment cleanup
EPA’s recommendation for how to clean up the
sediments in the Lower Duwamish Waterway
- EPA’s
Environmental Justice Analysis
EPA’s analysis of possible impacts of the cleanup
options on the Local community
Lower Duwamish Waterway Public Meeting Schedule
Ecology will respond to all comments related to Ecology’s
Source Control Strategy and EPA will respond to all
comments related to the Proposed Plan and the
Environmental Justice Analysis. Responses will be posted
online after the comment period.
Please
submit your comments for any of the three documents
using the methods below:
More information about EPA’s proposed cleanup can be found on their
Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site webpage.
-
March 18 Lower Duwamish Source Control Update
Presentation
|
Background
The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are working to clean
up contaminated sediments and control sources of recontamination
in the Lower Duwamish Waterway under an Administrative Order on
Consent with the City of Seattle, King County, the Port of
Seattle, and The Boeing Company.
The Lower Duwamish Waterway site is approximately 5.5 mile
portion of the Lower Duwamish River which flows into Elliott
Bay.
The sediments along the river contain a wide range of
contaminants due to years of industrial activity and run off
from residential areas. These contaminants include
PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), PAHs (polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons), chlorinated dioxins & furans, metals, and
phthalates.
EPA is leading the sediment contamination investigation for the
Lower Duwamish Waterway site with support from Ecology. In 2001,
EPA added the Lower Duwamish Waterway site to the Superfund
National Priorities List; Ecology added the site to the
Washington Hazardous Sites List in 2002. More information on
the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site can be found on EPA’s
web page:
Lower Duwamish Waterway site. More information on the
sediment contamination clean up can be found on the following
sites: Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (http://www.duwamishcleanup.org)
and the Lower Duwamish Work Group (http://www.ldwg.org).
Ecology is leading the efforts to control sources of sediment
pollution in the Lower Duwamish Waterway in cooperation with the
City of Seattle, the Port of Seattle, King County, the City of
Tukwila, and EPA.
Source Control is the process of working to find and control
releases of pollution to waterway sediments to prepare for
cleanup and prevent sediment recontamination. Finding and
controlling sources is difficult, and even with aggressive
source control some recontamination may occur.
Seven areas along the river have been identified as candidates
for high priority sediment cleanup.
The initial source control focus is on three early action areas:
Duwamish/Diagonal, Terminal 117, and Slip 4;
see site map.
Ecology is leading the interagency Source Control Work Group
(SCWG). The SCWG shares information, discusses strategy,
develops action plans, implements source control measures, and
tracks progress. The SCWG includes:
Ø Ecology: Lead for source control at properties that discharge
directly to the waterway and for source control work at upland
contaminated properties;
Ø City of Seattle and City of Tukwila: Lead for source control
within their storm drain systems;
Ø King County: Lead for source control for discharges to
wastewater or combined wastewater and storm water systems;
Ø Port of Seattle: Lead for source control and contaminated
upland property issues for Port properties; and
Ø EPA: Lead for Boeing Plant 2 and Rhone/Poulenc cleanup sites;
provides technical assistance, source control coordination with
EPA sediment investigation and cleanup activities.
Ecology and the SCWG wrote a
Source
Control Strategy for the Lower Duwamish Waterway.
We will continue to expand this web page as additional
information and documents become available. Please check the
menu at the left regularly for new information on source control
activities in the Lower Duwamish Waterway.
