Tacoma Port Earley Business Center

In the 1910s, the higher (upland) part of this property was created by filling in what used to be tidal flats. During World War I and World War II, the site was a Naval shipyard. Ships were built along docks next to the shoreline, and the upland areas were used for support work. The Port of Tacoma bought the property around 1960. Since then, the site has been used for various industries. Now the Port is planning to redevelop the site to update it for modern marine-related industries. The area is zoned for industrial use, and will be for the foreseeable future.

We seek your input on the following two documents, available on our Tacoma Port Earley Business Center cleanup page:

• Draft Interim Action Plan: This is a plan for a partial cleanup. It focuses on petroleum-based contamination that comes from fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and heating oil. The cleanup will remove four underground storage tanks and contaminated soil, to prevent more contamination from them.
• State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) Determination of Non-Significance: Ecology determined the proposed cleanup is not likely to cause significant environmental harm. We considered environmental, historical, and cultural factors in this process.

The planned interim action will remove four old underground storage tanks and the contaminated soil around them. Itwill also target nearby petroleum hydrocarbon contamination referred to as the LNAPL (Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid) source area. LNAPL ‘floats’ on the surface of the groundwater. This contamination likely came from heating oil tanks that have already been removed.

The LNAPL source area and USTs are under paved surfaces in the center of the site. Workers will remove the portable building that sits on part of the area before they begin excavating. After excavation, they will transport contaminated soil off-site to a permitted landfill. All excavated areas will be re-filled with clean soil, compacted, and repaved as needed.

This partial cleanup will prevent further contamination while the full cleanup plan is being developed. The full plan will be available for public comment when it is ready.

Stay informed by subscribing to the site on the cleanup webpage (above). Those subscribed will receive a weekly automated email update whenever there is a comment period, a new document, or an update to the cleanup details. Visit Ecology’s blog to learn more about this new feature.