Tests done on the proposed location for the city of Bainbridge Island’s new police/court building on Madison Avenue found not only polluted soils from the former dry cleaning business that was located on the property but vapors from dry cleaning solvents that far exceeded the state Department of Ecology’s risk screening levels for harmful vapors.

City officials announced Tuesday that the property Bainbridge hopes to use for a multi-million dollar police and municipal court building was so contaminated that groundwater on the site may also be polluted. The property at 290 Madison Ave. North is currently home to a laundromat, but in years past once housed a dry cleaning business.

Tests conducted in September by the consultant firm of Environmental Associates, Inc. of Bellevue found PCE (Tetrachloroethen) and TCE (Trichloroethene) — both chlorinated dry-cleaning solvents — on the property.

PCE found in 11 of the 20 soil samples taken from the property were above compliance levels set by the state Department of Ecology, according to a consultant study released by city officials at a news conference Tuesday.

Ecology has a target compliance level of 0.05 parts per million (ppm) for PCE, but the concentrations found on the Madison Avenue property ranged between 0.054 to 0.35 ppm.

A vapor sample collected as part of last month’s environmental analysis was much more concerning, however.

Concentrations of both PCE and TCE solvents were found in a soil vapor sample taken.

A soil boring sample on the east side of the laundromat building found a VOCs (volatile organic compounds) concentration level of 58,000 ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter of air).

The consultant report noted the finding was “well above” Ecology’s vapor intrusion risk screening level of 321 ug/m3.

The city still wants to buy the property, officials said Tuesday, pending voter approval of a $15 million bond measure that will be on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot.

The property needs to be cleaned up sooner rather than later, said City Manager Doug Schulze.

“We feel that the city has a responsibility to make sure the site gets cleaned up rapidly, as quick as possible,” Schulze said.

The city is “best situated,” he said, to make sure the cleanup would happen in a timely fashion.

Otherwise, Schulze added, the cleanup may have to wait until the property is redeveloped by a private interest.

“This is something that needs to be taken care of right away,” Schulze said of the cleanup.

The environmental assessment by Environmental Associates, Inc. was publicly released Tuesday, but was given to the owner of the property, Landmark Management, Monday.

City council members were given a draft copy of the report in a closed-door executive session before the start of the council meeting on Oct. 6.

Mayor Anne Blair said the council decided then that the public should be notified of the environmental report.

The city received a final version of the report Friday, Oct. 9 and it was released four days later.

City officials have known for some time that the property was contaminated.

Two earlier environmental assessments, one conducted for American Marine Bank in May 2000 and another for Wells Fargo Bank in 2009, noted pollution on the property.

A 2000 study of soil on the property found dry-cleaning solvents near an exterior dumpster area and also beneath the dry cleaner’s former boiler room.

Measurements at the time found concentrations below Ecology’s target compliance levels.

The 2009 report noted that Ecology lowered its compliance level for PCE in August 2001, so the property was then past the new target level set by the state.

Contaminated soil was again found in 2009 near the dumpster area, and also near where the former dry-cleaning machine was thought to be located, but testing at the time was limited to the first few upper feet of soil.

Tests conducted last month found much more extensive contamination.

The latest study of the property noted that the full extent of the contamination is not known, but contaminated soils were found to still exist beneath the building on the property and also near the eastern and southern edges of the parcel.

The area of contamination beneath the building may extend well beyond the structure’s footprint, and the report notes solvent-impacted wastewater may have been sent through the city’s nearby sanitary sewer line.

The contaminated soil by the dumpster area may also extend beyond a 20-by-40-foot area where pollution was found in recent tests.

Although the city and supporters of the $15 million bond measure for a new police station have been touting the positive aspects of the Madison Avenue site for the new police facility for months, city officials said Tuesday they had not intentionally kept the known contamination of the site out of current discussions of the $15 million bond measure. The Madison Avenue location was selected earlier this year after city officials ruled out building a new police station at the existing police headquarters property on Winslow Way, or on properties further north on Madison Avenue.

“I know there wasn’t any intent to hide the ball,” Schulze said.

“It was public information that the site had been listed and that Phase 1 (assessments) had already been done,” he said. “Like many sites in the city, we knew it was listed.”

Schulze said the city would continue to talk about the urgency of cleaning up the site.

“From our perspective, this is something that can’t sit and wait for another five, 10, 15 years,” he said.

Getting the bond measure approved would give the city the chance to work with Ecology on a cleanup plan, Schulze said, and some of the contaminated soil would have been removed as part of the development of the land for a police station.

“This is an opportunity for us to get the site cleaned up as part of an existing plan. I don’t see it as much of a setback as it may otherwise have been,” he said.

Schulze said the cleanup costs would be the responsibility of the property owner, or more likely, the insurance carrier for the dry cleaning business, but city officials also noted Ecology provides grants and loans to help cover cleanup costs for contaminated sites.

Officials couldn’t say this week if the city would initially handle the cleanup — assuming the bond measure passes — and then seek reimbursement from the property owner.

More talk with the property owner is needed, Schulze said, and more testing will also need to happen before a cleanup plan can be pursued with Ecology.