Description
The city of Tacoma is cleaning up the Thea Foss and Wheeler-Osgood waterways, long considered to be among the most polluted in the nation.
For more than a century, this portion of Tacoma’s waterfront served as a waste depository for local industries. It was a common belief that tidal activity would simply wash the waste out to sea. Instead, industrial waste collected in the marine sediment of this delicate estuary.
In 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency designated these waterways as part of the Commencement Bay Superfund site. But in subsequent years, efforts to clean up the estuary became deadlocked in legal wrangling.
The city of Tacoma voluntarily took the lead in cleanup efforts, and formulated a remediation plan in 1994. The city will clean up about 80 percent of the Thea Foss Waterway, an area extending from the state Route 509 bridge to the mouth of the waterway, including the small Wheeler-Osgood Waterway.
Puget Sound Energy and other entities will clean up the remaining 20 percent, south of the Route 509 bridge to the head of the waterway.
Toxic wastes deposited in the sediment include solvents, petroleum-based products, arsenic, lead and pesticides. The contaminated sediment will be dredged using a pipeline to a disposal site in the Saint Paul Waterway, where it will be capped with a thick layer of clean sediment.
Federal and state law prohibits in-water work in the spring and summer to protect salmon and other migrating fish. To minimize the impact, dredging work will take place in the fall and winter, and finish by mid-February of 2006.
To accommodate boats during the dredging, new marinas are under construction in front of the Museum of Glass, Thea’s Landing and Albers Mill. Old pilings are being removed, and a portion of the Foss Landing Marina is in the process of being dismantled.
When the dredging is finished, the marinas will remain as permanent enhancements to the waterway.
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Contractor:
Contractor: Manson Construction Co., 5209 E.
Marginal Way S., Seattle, WA 98134,
(206) 762-0850
Engineer:
KPFF Consulting Engineers, 1601
Fifth Ave., Suite 1600, Seattle, WA
98101, (206) 622-5822
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Other Participants
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American Civil Constructors/Hurlen
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Argus Pacific
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Berendsen Fluid Power
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Bering Industrial
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Concrete Technology
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Dalton Electric
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Glacier Northwest
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Harris Rebar
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Keiser Steel Fabricators
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LRI
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Mantle Industries
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Maritime International
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Mayer Construction
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Nor-Pac Enterprises
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Pacific Grading
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Performance Abatement
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PSR
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Rasmussen Wire Rope & Rigging
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Roadway Construction
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Rupert Construction Supply
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RW Rhine
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Scarsella
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Shoreside Construction
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Skyline Steel Corp.
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Steel Systems Technology
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Washington Rock Quarries
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