News - Local News

POSTED: Monday, Jul. 21, 2008

Waterway cleanup sampling underway

Anchor Environmental hired for job

Editor’s note: The Port of Bellingham and city of Bellingham have joined forces to redevelop 137 waterfront acres that the port acquired from Georgia-Pacific West Inc. in 2005, as well as an additional 83 acres of waterfront property. This weekly update is provided by the port.

Bellingham Bay is busy with barges, cranes and boats while crews gather samples for one of the largest cleanups under way in the region. The work began last week and will continue for another six weeks.

In September, the state Department of Ecology decided on a cleanup plan for more than 200 acres of Bellingham Bay, where mercury was discharged by Georgia-Pacific’s waterfront plant in the 1960s and ’70s. Overseen by the Ecology Department, the Port of Bellingham is responsible for designing and completing cleanup of the site.

The port hired Bellingham-based Anchor Environmental to do the sampling of sediment from the bay, soil from upland areas along the waterfront, and sludge from the industrial wastewater pond at the foot of C Street. The samples will provide data necessary to design a cleanup of mercury contamination in the Whatcom Waterway area.

The port accepted responsibility for the cleanup when it acquired the waterfront property. The Whatcom Waterway cleanup project is scheduled to begin in 2010 and be completed in 2014. Work in the water is limited to certain months to protect salmon populations.

The site is part of the Bellingham Bay Demonstration Pilot, a multiagency initiative that combines sediment cleanup, addressing pollution from existing and future sources, habitat restoration and land use. Cleanup strategies and cooperative management in Bellingham Bay serve as a model for cleanup throughout Puget Sound and the state of Washington.

Port Commission Discusses University Development

At the port commission’s work-study session last week, port staff presented information about a development strategy being considered by Western Washington University and the port.

The two organizations are looking into creating a nonprofit development organization whose board would include a commissioner, a member of WWU’s board of trustees, the port executive director, the university president and one more member.

The organization could purchase property from the port and then select a developer to build WWU’s facilities and possibly some surrounding property. The university could enter into a lease of its facilities this way, and possibly develop the area more quickly and affordably, port staff said.

WWU’s board will consider the development entity at its Friday, Aug. 8 meeting, and the port commission will consider it Tuesday, Aug. 19.