Thirty years of contamination cleanup help breathe new life into Bellingham’s waterfront

Newer residents might think of Bellingham's central waterfront only as a beloved gathering space, with popular parks at the heart of a growing commercial and residential neighborhood. But not too long ago, Bellingham's central waterfront was primarily a heavy industrial zone dotted with operations that contaminated a huge swath of the bay and its shoreline.

How did the transformation happen? Thirty years ago, we helped to form a multi-agency partnership to guide the cleanup of Bellingham Bay under the state's environmental cleanup law, the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), with an eye towards restoring habitat and preparing for redevelopment. Determination, creativity, flexibility and more than $100 million of MTCA funding have kept this effort moving forward.

A new approach to cleanup

Bellingham has long been home to natural resource industries like the Georgia-Pacific pulp and paper mill that anchored Bellingham's economy for many decades.

Bellingham Bay cleanup stats

• Investment to date: More than $300 million
• MTCA grant funding since 2013: $112 million
• Upland contaminated material removed: 73,099 tons
• Contaminated sediment removed: 138,586 tons
• Clean fill placed: 145,950 cubic yards

But before modern environmental laws were put in place, these industries produced a legacy of toxic substances like petroleum, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, dioxins, and furans, which polluted the soil, groundwater, and marine sediments. These pollutants from different sources were commingled in the bay, further complicating cleanup efforts. And properties have changed hands over the decades, making it more challenging to assign legal responsibility for cleanup work.

Even before the mill's pulp operations shut down in 2001, local, state, and federal agencies together with Lummi Nation, Nooksack Tribe, and Georgia-Pacific started discussing a unified approach to cleaning up the many contaminated sites around the bay.

In 1996, the organizations formed a partnership now called the Bellingham Bay Action Team, co-managed by Ecology and the Port of Bellingham. Working together, they created the 2000 Bellingham Bay Comprehensive Strategy, which considers contaminated bay sediments, land use, sources of sediment contamination, and fish habitat from a bay-wide perspective. The plan informs cleanup work and other bay projects and makes it easier to integrate projects. And since the partnership includes permitting agencies, cleanup work and other bay projects have an opportunity to be adjusted before entering the formal permitting process.

The cleanup process was further streamlined when the Port of Bellingham purchased 137 acres of the waterfront from Georgia-Pacific for a mere $10, assuming the legal responsibility for cleaning up the property.

Crucially, this also unlocked tens of millions of dollars in MTCA cleanup grants, ensuring the cleanup would happen on a faster timeframe. The Port and the City of Bellingham have purchased additional contaminated properties, for a total of 220 acres under public control.

The complex technical nature of the cleanup still remains, but having two public agencies as the primary landowners and willing long-term cleanup partners makes it easier to implement a long-term strategy and find logistical efficiencies with experienced staff.

MTCA grants make cleanup possible

The Bellingham Bay cleanups require excavating hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of contaminated soil, capping contamination to prevent exposure for humans and the environment, installing groundwater treatment systems, and other intensive work. That type of heavy work does not come cheap.

While MTCA is clear that the polluter is responsible for paying for the cleanup, the responsible party or entity is broadly defined. It could be the polluter or any subsequent owner of the contaminated site. For the Bellingham Bay cleanup, the Port and the City have assumed much of the responsibility while also seeking reimbursement from polluters and insurance companies.

The largest grants we offer for cleanup work are called Remedial Action Grants. These grants distribute MTCA funds to local governments so that the financial burden of cleanup doesn't fall on the people and communities who aren't at fault for the contamination. The funding comes from an excise tax on hazardous substances, including petroleum products and certain pesticides and chemicals. Remedial Action Grants can cover up to 50% of cleanup costs.

These grants are crucial for advancing complex and expensive cleanup sites like the ones around Bellingham Bay. Since 2013 we've invested over $62 million in the cleanup, with $50 million more slated for upcoming projects. The investment is substantial, but the payoff is a healthy, thriving community, environment, and local economy.