Buse Timber & Sales, Everett

• Draft Agreed Order – a legal agreement between Ecology and Everett Partners, the potentially liable person, for cleanup actions needed at the site.
• Draft Public Participation Plan – explains how we will notify the public of upcoming opportunities to get involved and how comments will be used for cleanup decisions.

The Buse Timber & Sales site is on Smith Island in the Snohomish River floodplain. It’s bordered to the north by Union Sough, the east by Interstate 5 and to the west and south by commercial and industrial businesses. A lumber mill started operations at this location in the 1940s and is still in use.

The Buse Timber & Sales property is roughly 60 acres and has a sawmill that’s still in use, a log float beach ramp on Union Slough, log storage, and a hog fuel (used oil and sawdust) mixing area, dip tanks of soluble fungicide, and buildings used for storage and maintenance. Historically, the facility also had a log pond, an underground storage tank system, and a dip tank for treating wood with pentachlorphenol.

Contamination

Sampling at the site has identified hazardous chemicals in the soil, groundwater, and sediment. These chemicals include arsenic, petroleum/diesel products, halogenated organics, dioxins/furans, and mercury. These substances are hazardous and some, like dioxins, are carcinogenic (potentially cancer causing). Cleaning them up lessens the risk of their spreading and contaminating other areas or becoming more difficult to clean up later.