Toxics Cleanup
Accidental spills and past business practices have contaminated land and water throughout Washington. The Toxics Cleanup Program works to get these sites cleaned up. Cleanups protect the health of living things, put abandoned properties back to use, and help communities thrive.
Spokane's Riverfront Park was once a polluted industrial site.
The Toxics Cleanup Program creates tools and guidance and provides technical help for people cleaning up contaminated sites, as well as directly supervising some cleanups. The program also regulates underground storage tanks to help prevent pollution.
Washington’s environmental cleanup law, the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), began as a citizen’s initiative in 1988. As part of it, voters approved a tax on hazardous substances coming into the state to help clean up contaminated sites.
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Reports to the legislature
We regularly report to the legislature on our work and how we manage public money.
MTCA expenditures
MTCA expenditures reports describe how we spent MTCA funds. We publish this report in December of each odd-numbered year. Before 2011 we reported annually instead of biennially.
Reports from before 2021 include the Hazardous Sites List. This was a set of about 2,000 sites we’d ranked by relative risk. We stopped keeping the Hazardous Sites List in 2021. We changed our rating method and we now rate all sites in need of cleanup, not just a subset.
MTCA ten-year reports
MTCA ten-year reports look to the future. Every other year, we coordinate with local governments to estimate the financing we'll need for cleanup over the next ten years. We also identify the projects and grant programs that we include in our biennial budget request to the Governor.
Cleanup Settlement Account report
Cleanup Settlement Account reports describe how we’re using money from legal settlements and court orders for specific sites and restorations. This includes Asarco bankruptcy settlement projects like the Everett Smelter and Tacoma Smelter plume.
One-time reports
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Healthy housing remediation: 2018 results and recommendations explains our first work with the Department of Commerce on cleaning up sites for affordable housing. This grew into our current affordable housing work.
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Changes to MTCA in 2013 created new tools intended to encourage brownfield cleanup and redevelopment. Redevelopment Opportunity Zones & Brownfield Redevelopment Trust Fund Accounts in Washington State: 2013–2017 explains how three communities created the new zones. None used the trust fund account option, likely because the state couldn’t help fund projects at the time.
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Status of developing model remedies: 2016 report is about establishing standard cleanup methods for common situations. We now offer these model remedies for several types of contamination, including lead and arsenic within the Tacoma smelter plume or former orchard lands, metals from abandoned mines, and petroleum spills.
Related links
Contact information
Toxics Cleanup Program main number
360-407-7170
Media inquires
Cheryl Ann Bishop
Communications Manager
CherylAnn.Bishop@ecy.wa.gov
360-819-6247