Nineteen years since a major cleanup at the Holly Street Landfill site, the state continues checking the cleanup’s efficacy as it seeks public comment on the health of the area situated at the mouth of Whatcom Creek.
The cleanup, which addressed years of municipal waste at the site, was completed in 2005 and part of the site is now Maritime Heritage Park. Since then, the Washington State Department of Ecology holds periodic reviews to ensure cleanup efforts continue to protect human health and the environment.
The department’s 2024 evaluation asked the city to do three things: to conduct monitoring to assess the current quality of groundwater seeps discharging to Whatcom Creek, to conduct a climate change vulnerability assessment and to investigate the source of contamination in Whatcom Creek sediment next to the state.
A climate change vulnerability assessment will look at how the cleanup will be affected by future sea level rise and other climate change impacts, said Cliff Nale, a cleanup site manager at Ecology.
An increased concentration of dioxin/furan (D/F) compounds in sediment near the site prompted the department to ask the city to look into whether that contamination could be coming from the landfill site, Nale said.
Amy Kraham, assistant attorney for the City of Bellingham, said Thursday that the city has already hired a consultant to look into the source of the sediment contamination.
“Our initial findings from the consultant that we hired demonstrated that the contamination was not coming out of Holly Street [Landfill], but rather was being transported in from Whatcom Waterway,” Kraham said. A cleanup of Whatcom Waterway is ongoing.
At a tour hosted by nonprofit RE Sources Thursday, June 13, members of the nonprofit and representatives from the City of Bellingham and Ecology talked through the history of the site.
The site was part of the original Whatcom Creek estuary and mudflat in the late 1800s, according to the Department of Ecology’s Fact Sheet. Around 1905, private property owners started filling the site with dredge spoils to “increase useable upland area” — from 1937 to 1953, municipal waste was used to fill tidelands.
The cleanup process began in 1993 with an initial investigation, after garbage was seen rising to the surface of the site, said Kirsten McDade, North Sound Waterkeeper at RE Sources. The cleanup took place from 2004 to 2005, when the city addressed solid waste, methane production and contamination to Whatcom Creek by removing 12,400 tons of solid waste. That waste was transported and disposed of in an off-site landfill.
The cleanup also included putting in a two-foot cover over the site, comprised of soil, gravel, buildings, building foundations and pavement, according to Ecology, removing “refuse,” and placing an engineered cap on the northern shoreline to prevent copper and zinc from being released into the creek.
Community members can provide comments on Ecology’s report until July 3.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
