Bellingham Central Waterfront Tour & Public Meeting

When:
10/04/2017 @ 1:30 pm
2017-10-04T13:30:00-07:00
2017-10-04T13:45:00-07:00
Where:
Technology Development Center Douglas G. Smith Conference Room ​
1000 F St
Bellingham, WA 98225
USA
Cost:
Free
Bellingham Central Waterfront Tour & Public Meeting @ Technology Development Center  Douglas G. Smith Conference Room  ​ | Bellingham | Washington | United States
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RE Sources for Sustainable Communities will host a free public tour of the Central Waterfront cleanup site at the Bellingham waterfront on Wednesday, October 4 from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Representatives from the Department of Ecology and the Port of Bellingham will highlight where contamination is located, previous cleanup work, options for addressing remaining contamination and a preferred option for cleanup. The tour will begin at the Technology Development Center on F Street downtown.

Later that same day, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., the public is invited to return for a public meeting where Ecology and the Port will provide more detailed information from an environmental report that is currently available for public review.

“I am glad this iconic part of Bellingham’s identity will be restored and am hopeful for an involved public process, and thorough cleanup,” said Lee First, North Sound Baykeeper at RE Sources for Sustainable Communities.

The Central Waterfront site contains legacy pollution from over a hundred years of industry, leaving the soil, groundwater and sediment contaminated with metals, municipal and wood wastes, petroleum hydrocarbons, and others. The contaminants are present at potentially harmful levels and must be addressed under Washington’s cleanup law, the Model Toxics Control Act.

Brian Sato from Ecology will be available during the tour to answer questions about state cleanup requirements and the cleanup process, and to discuss previous cleanup work. Ben Howard from the Port will available to discuss where contamination is located, options for addressing remaining contamination and the preferred cleanup option. The preferred option would excavate and properly dispose of about 100 truckloads of petroleum contaminated soil, and isolate remaining contaminated soil. Groundwater treatment may also be necessary based upon additional future study.

As a part of the regulatory cleanup process, the Port and the City of Bellingham have prepared an environmental report with Ecology oversight. The report includes a description of where contamination is located, options for addressing it and a preferred option for cleanup. Ecology is soliciting public comment on the report through November 1. The report can be viewed at Ecology’s Central Waterfront webpage.

The 51-acre Central Waterfront cleanup site is owned primarily by the Port of Bellingham, located near the former Georgia-Pacific industrial wastewater treatment lagoon. Beginning in the early 1900s, the site and surrounding tidelands were filled and used for a lumber mills, trucking, log rafting, refuse disposal operations, fuel terminals, coal storage and shipping, gravel hauling and other industrial uses. In 2004, the Port began acquiring contaminated property within the Central Waterfront cleanup site to overcome the burden of historic contamination and rebuild the marine trades economy.

The Central Waterfront site is one of 12 cleanup sites in the Bellingham Bay Demonstration Pilot project, a coordinated bay-wide effort by federal, tribal, state and local governments to clean up contamination, control pollution sources and restore habitat, with consideration for land and water uses.

For more information, visit re-sources.org/events or RSVP on Facebook at http://bit.ly/waterfronttour.

 

 

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