BI Superfund site gets funds to spur cleanup

Pritchard Park may have some unbeatable views sooner than expected, thanks to new federal funding — they just have to clear up the toxic waste, first.

The Wyckoff-Eagle Harbor Superfund Site on Bainbridge Island was awarded $80 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a massive nationwide grant program in its third year that provides localities and states with funding to update transportation facilities.

About 650,000 gallons of toxic chemicals leftover from the use of creosote remain in the soil at Wyckoff after 40 years of Environmental Protection Agency-led cleanup efforts. While officials did not have an exact estimate for completion, the new funding will help the project pick up steam.

“We not only are restoring this land for the people of Washington State, but we’re preserving the most beautiful sea in the world — the Salish Sea and Puget Sound — to keep this old creosote off our present beaches and our present water,” said Gov. Jay Inslee during a news conference at the site Sept. 5. “And I could not be more thrilled about what we are accomplishing here.”

In order to qualify for the grant, projects must enhance public safety, contribute to climate goals, increase social equity or modernize aging infrastructure. The Wyckoff project meets the first two points, 6th District U.S. Congressional Rep. Derek Kilmer said.

“When many folks think about investing in our infrastructure, they think about building new roads and bridges and ferries,” Kilmer said. “While those projects get a lot of attention, a lot of folks here today fought to ensure that the [law] also included substantial investment in environmental remediation at Superfund sites—making it one of the largest investments in American history to address the legacy pollution that harms the public health of communities and neighborhoods like Bainbridge Island.”

The state officials were joined by Casey Sixkiller, regional EPA head, Maj. Joe O’Donnell of the Army Corps of Engineers; BI Mayor Joe Deets; Heather Barlett, deputy director of the state Department of Ecology; and Suquamish Tribe vice chair Josh Bagley for a tour of Wyckoff. Both Deets and Bagley highly anticipated the future public amenities of the site.

“We are pleased that this land and Superfund site are in the process of being cleaned up. We haven’t been able to practice our historic fishing rights in Eagle Harbor, including harvesting clams, oysters and geoduck,” Bagley said. “We trust that the EPA will engage in meaningful tribal consultation during the upcoming projects […] It’s critical that the EPA keep treaty principles in mind, to correct the harms of the past and steer the future.”

The funding will accelerate four components of the cleanup — most urgently, the replacement of a metal retaining wall that in places “looks like Swiss cheese,” remedial project manager Jacob Moersen said. The wall surrounds the uplands of the Wyckoff site, and keeps creosote-contaminated debris from migrating into Puget Sound, but portions of it have begun to rust away with age and exposure. It’ll be replaced with a reinforced concrete wall starting early next year, provided the government agency is able to award a contract for construction.

“It’s the belt-and-suspenders approach to making sure the wall has one hundred years of longevity, with sea level rise accounted for,” Moersen said.

Nature is also doing its part to keep the creosote contained. Bernadette Wright, fellow remedial project manager at Wyckoff, explained that there are several distinct sediment layers in the work area: the vadose zone, the aquitard and the aquifer. Creosote can’t travel through all three, which is why the second major project kicking off at Wyckoff will involve the installation of a subtidal cofferdam about 400 feet to the south of the site, followed by dredging of contaminated sediment.

Most of the creosote offal is in about the first 70 feet of soil, and increases in density farther beneath the surface along a gradient. That layer sits atop a natural aquitard made of Vashon glacial till, a sediment leftover from the last ice sheets that covered Puget Sound, characterized by “generally very dense, gray, silty to very silty, gravelly, fine to coarse sand with scattered cobbles and boulders and a trace of clay,” per midcentury engineer T.L. Olmstead. Below the aquitard is the aquifer, a layer of potable freshwater that BI relies on for drinking and household use.

The aquitard acts as a filter, slowing the diffusion of contaminants from the upper layer to the aquifer below. While it is not 100% effective — both the vadose zone and the aquifer are contaminated with creosote — the groundwater in the aquifer is not extensively affected by toxic chemicals as of 2019, and most of it is concentrated in the center of the uplands at Wyckoff.

Concrete will also come in handy for land cleanup efforts. After a successful pilot study in 2023, the EPA is turning to in-situ soil solidification to lock the toxic chemicals in place by mixing cement into 267,000 cubic yards of contaminated earth. In-situ does not treat or eliminate the contaminants, but it does prevent them from going anywhere, which reduces their impact on surrounding environments.

“This is the chewy heart of the industrial process,” Moersen said.

But solidified soil is less permeable to water and may not be able to support deep-rooted trees, which could be a landscaping challenge when a treated site is redeveloped, environmental officials say. The EPA plans to add a vegetated soil cap and stormwater management measures.

Completion is a long way off, but there’s been steady progress, Moersen said. He recalled walking Bainbridge fire chief Jared Morevac around the site, who commented that “the clams used to be blue.”

In early twentieth century, Washington timber helped build the Panama Canal and San Francisco after the great fire of 1906. Much of that lumber was treated with creosote on BI at the Wyckoff plant. But those days are long gone, and cleaning up the pollution of the site is the focus.

“One of the things we know about industrial uses – it’s really easy to cause a lot of damage over a long time. And it’s really complicated to restore,” Sixkiller said.

Another site in Kitsap County has already been cleaned up. In Bremerton, the Suquamish Tribe is again able to fish on its traditional waters near the old Gasworks site, and a commercial marina and fishery now operate there.

A close-up of portions of the sheet metal wall that have been removed.

Officials look over debris left over from prior cleanup operations at Wyckoff.

Before solidification can begin, large debris must be cleared from the soil — of which there is a fair amount at Wyckoff. Extracted debris from demolitions past, leftover thermal piping from a pilot study and well-field replacement have left some large piles of garbage around the site.