There are hundreds of highly contaminated sites around the Northwest and one of the worst is on Bainbridge Island.
The EPA has designated the area next to Pritchard Park, right on the shore of Puget Sound, as a "superfund site," which means it's so hazardous that it poses a risk to human health or the environment.
“There is about 650,000 gallons of oily creosote waste in the soil and the groundwater behind the fence,” explained Helen Bottcher, who is managing the cleanup at the site.
For 90 years, the Wycoff Company facility, located on Bainbridge Island, was one of the largest wood treating operations in the world. Creosote was used to preserve the wood from decay. Now, decades later, creosote is now a known dangerous pollutant.
Creosote cleanups are happening all around the Sound, as derelict wood pilings are fished out and disposed of in special landfills.
The Wycoff site currently has a wall around it to prevent leakage into Puget Sound, as well as underwater wells pumping groundwater so it doesn’t get into the drinking water aquifer.
“This is one of the largest creosote sites in the northwest. We have cleaned up a couple of them along the way,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick.
The EPA is focusing on superfund site clean-ups like the one on Bainbridge Island, Hladick said.
“These sites have significance and we are working to get them back in the hands of the people and usable again,” Hladick said.
The Wycoff site will soon have concrete infused in the soil to bind the chemicals so they can no longer run off into the Sound or into drinking water. Then the fences will come down.
Work completion is scheduled for 2032.
“It’s going to be a long time, but we are excited to get started,” Bottcher said.