A research vessel began taking the first of about 8,000 sediment samples from Budd Inlet, near Olympia, Wash., this week. It’s a significant first step in cleaning up the waters around the state capitol.
The Washington State Department of Ecology ordered the cleanup in 2008 after the Port of Olympia found elevated levels of dioxins in an area scheduled for maintenance dredging. Other contaminants they’re looking for include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and various remnants of creosote, crude oil and gasoline - such as PCBs and heavy metals that built up after more than a century of heavy industry and wood processing.
The samples will be taken from about 100 sites over the next six to eight weeks. They’ll be run through laboratory analysis to identify the extent of the pollutants, and develop a detailed plan for their removal. A partnership with The Evergreen State College will get students in environmental fields out on the water with the research team.
Budd Inlet is the southernmost finger of Puget Sound, where it connects with the Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve, about 20 miles to its east. The area is an important habitat for marine life, including salmon.
“We used to fish eight months out of the year, but now we're down to seven days,” said Nisqually Chairman Willy Frank III, who is also a commercial fisherman.
He spoke at the Port’s official launch of the sediment sampling. The program now has about $12 million in grants from the state legislature to cover this initial phase of study. But the overall cost for cleanup and remediation is expected to total $150-200 million dollars.
Frank said tribal families whose traditional livelihoods depend on these waters are ready to travel to Washington D.C. to ask for federal funding.
“Let's go! Let's partner up as tribes, the state of Washington, Port of Olympia,” he said. “There's a lot of work that needs to be done here.”
Port officials said the Budd Inlet sediment mapping and removal will take at least another six or seven years.
“Probably longer than that,” said Port of Olympia director of environmental planning and programs Shawn Gilbertson.
He said their goal is to get the sediment cleanup done before Capitol Lake dam is removed, around 2030. Eventually, Budd Inlet will connect to the restored estuary that will be created, beneath the capitol dome.
The lake’s low oxygen levels and other water quality issues led to ambitious plans to revamp the entire area around the state capitol. The remediation is expected to take decades, and the bulk of the estimated cost must still be raised, most likely from federal sources.
“So we're looking for infrastructure dollars, transportation dollars to keep port operations up,” Gilbertson said. “And 2024 is the year that we're really going to be aggressively seeking these federal funds.”
Port officials said they can make a good case for the cleanup since Budd Inlet is connected to Puget Sound, and its poor water quality affects everything from shellfish, salmon and orcas to humans.
Its proximity to the seat of state government, with waters that literally reflect the capitol dome, also make it highly visible and should raise the profile of the project, they said.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
