Everett baywide cleanup and restoration (Port Gardner Bay)
The Everett waterfront serves local and regional needs for business and industry, recreation, housing, and cultural activities. The Puget Sound Initiative focuses energy and resources on cleaning up contaminated waterfront sites. We’re working together with local, state, and federal agencies; local tribes; businesses; and property owners to restore the waterfront — cleaning up old industrial sites and restoring waterfront areas for fish, animals, and people.
This baywide collaboration means more cleanups and restoration are happening faster. Important waterfront uses — marinas, parks, recreation, housing, fishing, cultural uses, and others — can thrive in a revitalized and healthy waterfront environment.
By using the Puget Sound Initiative’s funding for priority baywide cleanup, we have already cleaned up a few sites along the waterfront and have started cleanup on eight sites. We’re in the planning stages for one more. With each site cleanup, we are one step closer to a bay where families can swim, fish and wildlife thrive, and a waterfront supports sustainable jobs.
Port Gardner Bay looking south from Everett's Preston Point. Source: Port of Everett, 2017
The Everett waterfront is a treasure worth preserving.
The map below shows the location of nearshore cleanup sites under the Puget Sound Initiative for Port Gardner Bay. Look below the map for a description of each site and links to individual site pages. There are a total of 11 sites, and three are within the Port of Everett Waterfront Place Central Development Area.
Click on a site dot for more information.
Port of Everett Waterfront Place central development area sites
Port of Everett's 65-acre Waterfront Place Central Development Area. Source: Port of Everett, 2017
The Everett Shipyard Site is within the Port of Everett's Waterfront Place Central Development. Everett Shipyard maintained shipyard activities at this site since its founding as Fishermen’s Boat Shop in 1947. The shipyard historically operated as a boat building, maintenance, and repair facility. Operations at the site ceased in September 2009. An investigation to fully characterize contamination at the site was completed in 2010. Primary contaminants identified include metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), petroleum, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the uplands, and semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs; including PAHs), metals, tributyltin, PCBs, and petroleum in the sediment. Site cleanup of the uplands and the in-water area were completed in 2013 and 2014/2015, respectively. Facility Site ID number: 2794
The North Marina Ameron/Hulbert Site is part of the Port of Everett's Waterfront Place Central Development. Primary uses of the site included shingle and saw milling, marine support services, and concrete pole and piling manufacturing. Metals, petroleum, and other substances contaminate soil and groundwater at this site. The Port completed extensive investigation and partial cleanup of the site uplands under our voluntary cleanup program. An investigation to fully understand contamination at the site is completed in addition to interim actions that removed soil contamination and cleaned out and repaired stormwater lines. Final cleanup is anticipated for 2018. Facility Site ID number: 68853261
The North Marina West End Site is part of the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place Central Development. Used for commercial, marine, and industrial purposes since the 1900s, the North Marina West End site has a variety of contaminants including metals, polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and vinyl chloride. The Port completed extensive investigation and cleanup of the site uplands under our voluntary cleanup program. An investigation to fully understand potential contamination remaining at the site (for example, site groundwater and sediments) was completed in 2010. Primary contaminants of concern included arsenic, copper, and vinyl chloride in groundwater, and PAHs at one location in sediment. Long-term compliance groundwater and sediment monitoring was completed in 2013. Facility Site ID number: 3306834
Other Port Gardner Puget Sound Initiative sites
Everett's industrial East Waterway looking north from the Port's South Terminal. Source: Port of Everett, 2016
The Everett Smelter Lowland Area is located in north Everett adjacent to the Snohomish River and was home to several former Weyerhaeuser mills. This site is contaminated with lead, arsenic, and other metals. The smelter operated from 1896 to 1912. We received funds to continue cleanup of the Everett Smelter site as part of a settlement of the ASARCO environmental bankruptcy case. A Cleanup Action Plan was finalized in 2016. Facility Site ID: 2744
The Bay Wood Products Site is a former sawmill (from the 1930s to the 1970s) and log handling and storage facility (1979 to 1994) located at the confluence of the Snohomish River and Port Gardner Bay near the Maulsby Mudflats. An investigation to fully understand potential contamination at the site is currently on-going. Primary contaminants identified include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the uplands and low levels of dioxins/furans and PAHs in the sediments. Wood waste was also identified in the in-water area. An interim action to address upland PAH contaminated soil stockpiles was completed in 2013. Site cleanup of the in-water area is anticipated for 2018/2019. Facility Site ID number: 4438651
Operations at the Jeld-Wen property included door manufacturing, wood treating, and saw milling. The property is located on the Snohomish River waterfront at the north end of Everett and is currently being investigated to understand soil, groundwater, and sediment contamination at the site. Investigations to date have identified various petroleum products including creosote and other pollutants in soil and groundwater. Dioxins/furans, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been identified as primary contaminants in the sediment. The cleanup investigation is on-going. Site cleanup is anticipated for 2018/2019. Facility Site ID number: 2757
From the 1890s to the early 1980s, the Weyerhaeuser Mill A Former Site was used for sawmill and pulp mill operations and is located at the Port’s South Terminal. Samples collected from adjacent marine sediments were found to contain a large volume of wood waste, as well as contaminants including metals, polycholinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phenols, and dioxin/furans. Upland contaminants include metals, PAHs, petroleum, PCBs, and several semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), and volatiile organic compounds (VOCs). Ecology, the Port of Everett, Weyerhaeuser, and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) developed a cleanup agreement to guide site cleanup in 2012. In-water sediment sampling commenced in 2015 and upland sampling (soil and groundwater) began in 2016. The investigation is on-going. An interim cleanup action in a portion of the in-water area was completed in 2016/2017 to remove contaminated sediment and wood debris to increase navigational access to the terminal. Facility Site ID number: 1884322
TC Systems has supported the aviation and boating industries by chemically treating and painting metal parts since about 1984. TC Systems ceased operations in May 2010. Prior to TC Systems, industrial activities at the site consisted of a historic shingle mill that was built on pilings, a fiberglass boat construction company, and manufacturing of windows and railings for boats. A cleanup investigation at the site, which is ongoing, started April 2011 and documented contamination in both soil and groundwater. Primary contaminants identified are metals, semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and petroleum. An interim cleanup along the site’s south fenceline (adjacent to the Port’s Ameron/Hulbert site) is anticipated for 2019. Facility Site ID number: 10587741
The Kimberly-Clark (K-C) Worldwide, Inc. Site was primarily used for pulp and paper manufacturing from 1931 to 2012 and is located adjacent to East Waterway. K-C owns about 56 acres of uplands and 12 acres of tidelands. Past uses also included bulk petroleum storage operations by several oil companies and sawmilling. All manufacturing operations at the K-C facility ceased in April 2012 and the mill and former structures have since been demolished. Environmental sampling within the site uplands has identified contamination including metals, petroleum, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Ecology and K-C have developed an Agreed Order to investigate and clean up the site uplands. Soil cleanups conducted as an interim action in 2013 have resulted in the removal of about 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil along with several thousand gallons of petroleum contaminated groundwater.
A second interim action action will take place in 2020 to address 9 areas of remaining soil contamination. This will include plugging inactive underground pipes that pose a threat to East Waterway, including the City of Everett's Combined Sewer Overflow that discharges underneath the wharf. K-C will also remove and dispose of over 180,000 tons of crushed concrete and other materials left from the mill's demolition in 2012, to satisfy concerns from the Snohomish Health District.
The upland investigation is complete and the investigation report and cleanup action plan are expected to be completed in 2021. The in-water portion is within the East Waterway, which is being addressed under a separate cleanup agreement.
The East Waterway site is located in the Everett Harbor area at the mouth of the Snohomish River, directly west of downtown Everett. It is a deepwater port and industrial area with multiple sources of sediment contamination including historical discharges, as well as log rafting, which contributed to high levels of wood waste. Primary uses of the waterway have included shipping and processing facilities for timber, pulp, and alumina, deep water shipping operations by the Port of Everett, and naval activities. Historical sediment data show a variety of contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) including phenols, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxin/ furans, and some metals. Ecology entered into a cleanup agreement with Kimberly-Clark, the Port of Everett, and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in 2016 to research and identify hazardous substances at the East Waterway site. This includes upland sources that could potentially release contaminants to the in-water area. Any such contaminants identified will be addressed as part of the cleanup investigation. The investigation work plan is being developed. Facility Site ID number: 2733
A separate cleanup agreement is being developed between Ecology and the Navy, which is also a liable party for the site. The agreement outlines Navy cooperation in the completion of the cleanup investigation, which includes, but is not limited to, providing access to its property and available data, and review and comment on draft reports.
The ExxonMobil ADC Site was a former petroleum bulk storage and distribution facility located south of and adjacent to the former K-C Worldwide mill. An investigation in 1998 resulted in building an interceptor trench for petroleum recovery and paving of the site to prevent the spread of contamination. Petroleum gauging and oil recovery in on-site wells occurs on a monthly basis and the site’s groundwater is monitored semi-annually. An investigation to define the nature and extent of contamination in soil and groundwater at the site and its potential influence on adjacent surface water is complete. A focused set of cleanup options for the site is being developed. Cleanup is anticipated for 2018/2019. Facility Site ID number: 2728
