Cleaning Up: From RAGs to (environmental) riches

Ecology passes nearly 70 percent of the agency's $1.4 billion budget directly to local communities and governments.

The Port of Everett is using a Remedial Action Grant for a dredging project.

That money pays for a variety of other environmental work -- cleaning up contaminated sites, managing polluted stormwater runoff, preventing floods, managing garbage and wastewater, and more.

Remedial Action Grants, or RAGs, are significant tools for cleanups. Local governments -- port districts, cities, counties, and others -- use the grants to help reimburse some of their costs for cleaning up publicly owned properties.

Grants encourage cleanup

Cleanups aren't cheap -- they can cost tens of millions of dollars. By providing Remedial Action Grants, our Toxics Cleanup Program encourages environmental cleanup and supports local governments that want to redevelop contaminated properties they own. Funding for the grants comes from a voter-approved tax on hazardous substances as provided in the state's cleanup law, the Model Toxics Control Act.

Skagit County is using an old truck stop site for a new jail.

Without such aid, local governments might put off cleanup projects because of the expense. The grants give public entities confidence that they won't take on the entire project cost alone. (Local governments can also receive payments from former property owners or others who contributed to the pollution at a site, and from insurance policies.)

Typically, the grants reimburse 50 percent of a public entity's eligible costs. But reimbursement could go as high as 90 percent, if the local government is located in an area that's designated as "economically distressed."

Skagit County is one of the local governments using a 90 percent RAG. The county searched for a site for a new jail and eventually settled on the former Truck City truck stop site in south Mount Vernon.

Work is continuing on the new Skagit County jail.

The county bought the site in 2015. Truck City had operated for more than 30 years, with an on-site gas station, underground fuel storage tanks, truck weigh station, washing facilities, and more.

Activities at the site left pollution behind, so the county received a Remedial Action Grant to help pay for cleanup. The county's new jail is on track to open in spring 2017.

Clearing the way

Skagit County is just one example of a Remedial Action Grant in action. Dozens of the grants support projects in motion throughout the state, and helped fund completed projects.

Dredging will remove contamination around Pacific Terminal.

In Snohomish County, the Port of Everett is getting ready to start a dredging project at the former Weyerhaeuser Mill A site on Port Gardner Bay.

The dredging will remove tons of contaminated sediments from the water, plus improve navigational access to the port's Pacific Terminal. The port uses the site for handling cargo for construction and manufacturing industries, including parts for The Boeing Co.’s jetliners.

Work is expected to start in August and continue into the fall.

By Seth Preston, Toxics Cleanup Program communications manager

Around the Sound: Join us July 14 to talk about Everett's East Waterway

By Darrah Johnson, Community Outreach and Environmental Education Specialist, Toxics Cleanup Program

East Waterway in recent times.

We’re going to hold a public meeting on July 14 about evolving plans to clean up the East Waterway site in Everett. (See meeting details below.) A proposed legal agreement and draft public participation plan are available for public review and comment through July 30.

The waterway is located in Port Gardner Bay in the Everett Harbor area at the mouth of the Snohomish River, directly west of downtown Everett.

Since the early 1900s, the waterway has been an industrial area that included pulp-and-paper manufacturing, shipyard work, and other activities.

The Navy operated a shipyard in Everett during World War II.

In 2012, Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Inc. closed its pulp-and-paper operations, then filed for permits to demolish the facility and ready the property for sale.

The proposed legal agreement outlines the steps involved parties (Kimberly-Clark, the Port of Everett and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources) will take to investigate the contamination and propose options for cleanup work. The draft public participation plan explains how people can learn about and take part in the cleanup process.

The meeting will focus on the current status of the waterway, but will also provide an overview of the other 10 cleanup sites throughout Port Gardner Bay that are being cleaned up under the Puget Sound Initiative. People can ask questions, and learn more about the cleanup process.

The former Kimberly-Clark mill as seen from East Waterway.

On July 14, an open house will start at 6 p.m. in the Mt. Baker Room at the Everett Transit Station, 3201 Smith Ave., Suite 131. A presentation will begin at 6:45 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session. The meeting is scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m.

Around the Sound: Remaking Everett's waterfront

By Seth Preston, communications manager, Toxics Cleanup Program

Everett Shipyard then (2006) ...

We're hard at work in Everett, remaking the city's industrial waterfront along with a variety of partners.


We've identified 11 cleanup sites along Everett's Port Gardner Bay under the Puget Sound Initiative. Some of these cleanup sites are owned by and being cleaned up by the Port of Everett with our oversight and financial and technical assistance.

One of those projects focuses on the Everett Shipyard site.

A cleanup example

The site operated as a boat building, maintenance and repair facility. The shipyard conducted marine vessel repairs that included tank evacuations, equipment disassembly, sandblasting, woodwork and metalwork, painting/coating, and mechanical repairs.

... and now (2015).

Like the other Port Gardner Bay sites, industrial activities at Everett Shipyard spread contamination on to land and into the water for decades. 

The port has worked for several years to clean up the site's land and in-water portions to prepare for redevelopment. It's a key part of the port's Waterfront Place Central plans.

The photos show how the site has changed. And it's one more reminder of how cleaning up our environment not only improves and protects our land and water, it protects the health of local residents and provides opportunities for economic growth.

Around the Sound: Contaminated soil dug out at Everett site

By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Toxics Cleanup Program

Workers dug out petroleum-contaminated soil at a cleanup site in Everett on Monday (Aug. 22) as part of a quick action to protect people and the environment from the material.

Andy Kallus of Ecology’s Toxics Cleanup Program took the photo. Andy is the project manager for our Port Gardner Bay cleanup sites, which are included in our Puget Sound Initiative work.

The contaminated soil was removed from the North Marina Ameron/Hulbert site, which was the previous home of the Collins Building. The Port of Everett owns the site.

Two areas of petroleum contamination were identified when the Collins Building was demolished in 2010, which exposed the contamination. That made it accessible to the public.

The Port of Everett had about 80 cubic yards of contaminated soil removed from the site. Andy said doing so will help reduce the threat of contaminants spread via surface water runoff or leaching into shallow groundwater.

Andy and other Ecology staff are working with the port on a more permanent, larger-scale cleanup of the site. That work is expected to be done in 2014.

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Around the Sound: Port Gardner site on track for 2012 cleanup

By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Toxics Cleanup Program

We’re closing in on a milestone for a cleanup site on Everett’s Port Gardner Bay.

Ecology and the Port of Everett are preparing to sign a consent decree for the cleanup of the North Marina West End site. The legal agreement between Ecology and the port details what actions are needed to protect human health and the environment at the site. The decree requires the port to carry out the cleanup actions that will be identified in the site’s final cleanup action plan.

Right now, we expect cleanup work to start at the site in 2012.

Here’s a story from the Herald in Everett about the pending agreement. And here’s an Ecology news release on the public comment period about the agreement and other site documents.

The site is located between 11th and 14th streets, off West Marine View Drive southwest of the Legion Memorial Golf Course in western Everett. The site housed timber-product operations from about 1890 until about 1950. The North Marina area was filled to its current configuration between about 1947 and 1955.

Since then, the North Marina West End site has been used for commercial, marine and general industrial purposes. Uses included trucking and marine construction activities such as welding, pile driving, sandblasting, creosote log storage, and painting. The site also included storage tanks for diesel fuel, gasoline, waste and heating oils.

These uses contaminated soil, groundwater and sediment with a variety of chemicals, petroleum products and heavy metals.

The port already has performed some significant partial cleanup work. Between 2006 and 2008, the port dug up more 40,000 tons of contaminated soil and disposed of it off-site. Petroleum-contaminated groundwater also was cleaned up.

Port Gardner Bay is a high-priority cleanup area under the Puget Sound Initiative. Here’s a rundown on the Port Gardner sites.

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Around the Sound: Come talk about Everett waterfront cleanups

By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Toxics Cleanup Program

Staff from Ecology’s Toxics Cleanup Program will be in Everett on Feb. 16, 2011, to talk with Everett-area residents our cleanup sites around Port Gardner Bay.

You’re invited to take part. The meeting will be in the Snohomish Public Utility District No.1 auditorium, 2320 California St. An open house will start at 6 p.m., followed by a 6:30 p.m. presentation and an informal question-and-answer session.

We will talk about all 10 Puget Sound Initiative sites around Port Gardner. We will focus on the Everett Shipyard site, because we’re starting a public comment period on draft investigation and cleanup reports for that site.

Here’s a full news release, which details how to review and submit comments on the Everett Shipyard reports. You can send comments to Ecology from Thursday (Feb. 10, 2011) through March 14.

The Port of Everett owns the Everett Shipyard site, which ESY Inc. and its predecessors operated for about 60 years before shutting down in September 2009. The site is located within the Port Gardner Wharf project boundaries along West Marine View Drive.

Metals, petroleum products, anti-fouling agents and other substances contaminate the site. Sandblast grit from sandblasting marine vessels, leaks and spills from former tanks, stormwater runoff, boat washing, and maintenance and other shipyard activities likely caused the pollution.

Port Gardner Bay is a high-priority, “early-action” cleanup area under the Puget Sound Initiative. 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.

Under the initiative, Ecology is managing or assisting with the cleanup of 10 Port Gardner sites contaminated with gasoline, diesel fuel, metals, and other substances. An Ecology team is working with the Port of Everett, other site owners, area tribes, and others to help shape the cleanups.

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