SHARP dashboard tracks contaminated site ratings

There are about 6,500 contaminated sites in Washington that need cleanup or are being cleaned up. They range from small gasoline spills on dirt to complex mixes of different chemicals impacting soil, water, or air over hundreds of acres. Rating these sites can help direct our work and give us a better idea of the state of contaminated sites in Washington.

We are two years into using the new Site Hazard Assessment and Ranking Process (SHARP). Since January 2024 we've assessed over 1,400 sites - and now our partners, local governments, Tribes, and community members can track our progress on the SHARP dashboard.

A better assessment process

The SHARP process is a major improvement from the Washington Ranking Method, or WARM, which Ecology used from 1992-2023. With SHARP, we can now quickly and consistently assess a site's risks to people and other living things.

What you'll see on the dashboard

The new dashboard shows how many sites we've assessed, overall SHARP scores, and how many of these sites are in or near areas with vulnerable populations or overburdened communities. You can use filters to narrow down the data to a specific city or county, sites at different stages of the cleanup process, or search for an individual site by name.

Zoom out or zoom in

If you want to do a quick check on the rating of sites in your community, you can sort and filter by overall SHARP score (low, medium, high, or critical). If you're interested in the details of a specific site, click the site dot on the map or find it in the table below the map. There you can see individual scores for the site's soil, groundwater, surface water, sediment, and indoor air. For help interpreting these scores, see Assessing Contaminated Sites.

Environmental justice

As part of a SHARP assessment, we use the Washington Department of Health's Environmental Health Disparities map to help us understand if there are likely vulnerable populations or overburdened communities near the contaminated site. SHARP marks those sites with an environmental justice (EJ) flag. This is one of the big differences between SHARP and the old Washington Ranking Method. Understanding how contaminated sites impact communities can help us better prioritize cleanups.

The most recent data

The dashboard updates daily, just like our What's in My Neighborhood and Cleanup and Tank Search tools. With SHARP, we re-assess sites as they move through the cleanup process. If we've assessed a site multiple times, the dashboard shows only the results of the most recent assessment.

Assessing 6,500 sites - one site at a time

There are about 6,500 contaminated sites that need cleanup or are in some stage of the cleanup process. Our goal is to have most contaminated sites assessed by 2030. This is how we chose which sites to assess first:

• Sites that applied for Ecology cleanup grants. We're using the SHARP information as part of the grant process.

• Sites we already know are in overburdened communities or places with vulnerable populations.

• Sites where Ecology manages cleanup and sites in our technical assistance program.

We will reassess current sites when they reach cleanup milestones or if we receive new information. We're not assessing the more than 7,000 sites across Washington that are already cleaned up.

Progress made visible

As we are assessing new sites, we are also helping sites through the cleanup process. Some of the sites we've assessed have made it through the cleanup process and received a "no further action" determination. You can filter by the "no further action" cleanup status to see only these sites. In just over two years we've moved 140 sites off the contaminated sites list!

Questions or feedback

If you have questions about SHARP assessments or suggestions for our dashboard, contact Meredith Bee, SHARP Coordinator, at 360-995-3252 or [email protected]