About $4 million in state Department of Ecology grant money will help the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport as it works toward developing its South Aberdeen site as a center to celebrate the region’s maritime heritage.
Among other things, the Seaport has plans for a hotel and interpretive center for the site, said Seaport Executive Director Brandi Bednarik.
“It’s going to be a mix of industrial and recreation use,” she said, a place that would house the Seaport’s tall ships, Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, and also to draw other businesses to the property, be they maritime-related or not.
For decades the Historical Seaport location, across the Chehalis River from the Rotary Log Pavilion, was a Weyerhaeuser sawmill. Weyerhaeuser transferred the 24 acres of former mill property to the Seaport in 2013. Bednarik said the Seaport paid $10 for the land and $10 for some equipment, for a grand total of $20 for the transfer. The transfer was made with the caveat that the Seaport would take on all environmental responsibility for the property, “which is why we are doing all this testing now,” said Bednarik.
Normal sawmill operations left the potential for environmental hazards like fuel and paint spills, mercury, wood preservatives and woody debris. The Ecology grant is being used to test the site for those and other hazards and to develop a plan to clean up problem areas to get it ready for the mixed use plans the Seaport has.
A $2.83 million local government remedial action grant through the Department of Ecology was hung up for a couple of years while the Legislature had its overtime budget battle in 2017. Another $1.8 million was earmarked in the 2019-21 biennium budget, recently signed by Gov. Jay Inslee, and may be used for cleanup, once problems are identified.
“That will get us a lot more sampling and planning,” said Bednarik.
As of late May, she said she has the signed grant agreement for the $2.83 million grant, which has allowed the Seaport to proceed with testing.
Department of Ecology testing
Key team members for the Seaport site testing and cleanup are Joyce Mercuri, a cleanup project manager for Ecology’s southwest region with expertise in sediments, and Tom Middleton, who specializes in upland contaminants.
“Right now we are basically looking at how bad the problem is, where it is and what we can do about it,” said Middleton. “At the end we will prepare a cleanup action plan, which will all go through public review.” He called the entire process “very public driven,” with opportunities for public input when cleanup plans are developed.
Woody debris
The Weyerhaeuser sawmill sat atop what is now a grassy, silt-covered area just east of the Seaport dock. Underneath the silt is decades of sawdust and wood, referred to as “woody debris” by Ecology reports.
“Wood can create a toxic environment,” said Mercuri. The woody debris could be as much as 23 feet thick under the silt, and as it breaks down in an oxygen-poor environment it can produce different acids that can be harmful to some organisms.
Bednarik said sampling so far isn’t showing much in the way of woody debris contamination, but it will be an ongoing discussion with Ecology as testing continues.
The level of contamination at the old mill site combined with its potential use will determine the cost and level of cleanup. Bednarik said it’s been discussed to not use the area other than as an educational site where people can see and learn about the birds and grasses that can be found in riverside areas, but again a final use is yet to be determined as testing continues.
Paint, fuel
On the upland portion of the site, away from the shoreline, there are known paint and fuel spills that will be addressed. So far it doesn’t appear either has made its way into the river, and the Seaport and Ecology are moving toward making sure that doesn’t happen.
Ecology documents include an aerial map of the site, denoting the old mill buildings by name. One of them, the planer building/spray booth, is just south and east of the dock and is where sampling has found pentachlorophenol, a toxic chemical that was used as a wood preservative.
According to Bednarik, that site has been cleaned to industrial levels; more testing and cleaning will need to be done to clean it to a level considered safe for residential use.
Diesel and other petroleum products have been found between the maintenance shop just east of the planer building and the chemical storage building just east of there. More testing will be done but it doesn’t appear these spills have made their way to the river, said Bednarik, who added the recent grant money should be able to pay for the part of the cleanup.
“Hopefully, the $1.8 million (grant approved by the 2019 Legislature) will be mostly for cleanup,” said Bednarik.
Timeline
The Seaport will do a remedial investigation under Ecology oversight “to find out what the contaminants are, where they are, and where they are going,” said Middleton. “Once we figure all that out we can start looking at how do we clean this up.”
Middleton and Mercuri said there has been a fair amount of previous investigation of the site over the years, “which gives us a huge head start in the process,” said Middleton. “Right now a consultant is preparing a work plan to investigate the question marks that are still out there.”
A feasibility study is put together using information from a remedial investigation, where the past studies are used to determine possible contaminants and potential impacts on people, animals and vegetation. A feasibility study is used to determine a preferred cleanup alternative, which is outlined in an Ecology cleanup action plan. The plan includes cleanup standards, a schedule for design and construction work and requirement for monitoring, operation and maintenance. After cleanup is complete, the site is monitored to continue to assess the uses the property qualifies for.
Site testing is a lengthy process, but it’s hoped there will be a cleanup plan in place sometime next year.
COURTESY DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY This map of the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport shows the locations of some of the old Weyerhaeuser mill buildings, including the former sawmill area just east of the dock, the planer building and the maintenance shop.
DAN HAMMOCK | GRAYS HARBOR NEWS GROUP The old Weyerhaeuser sawmill site itself contains up to 23 feet of sawdust and wood buried under silt, according to the Department of Ecology.
