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PHOTO BY JOHN LARSON

CLEANING UP. Workers will remove approximately 50,000 cubic yards of oily soil along East ‘D’ Street, not far from Thea Foss Waterway.

Foss fill gets cleanup

By Clare Jensen

Cleaning up the Foss waterway continues this summer as local agencies work together to remove thousands of cubic yards of oil-soaked fill along ‘D’ Street.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) discovered an old, leaking oil pipeline back in 1995 when they were building the storm water retention pond near Highway 509.

In 2004, an interim action was taken to fix the pipeline leak that was seeping oil from a city storm line into the waterway. Now, after about four years of negotiations between involved parties, the bulkiest part of the clean up along ‘D’ Street has kicked off and will remove the land that has been absorbing the leaked oil for years.

“The first most important purpose is to make sure we don’t have any of this contamination in the waterway. As long as it’s in the ground, you always have that threat that it might get released again,” said Marv Coleman, site manager from the Department of Ecology’s toxic cleanup program.

BNSF Railway Co. owned the old oil pipeline, which was installed in the early part of the 20th century and was more or less forgotten by mid-century. BNSF will foot the brunt of the $3.2 million price tag for the project. The city of Tacoma, DOT and privately owned business the Home Electric Co. will share the remaining portion of the bill.

In late July, a large-scale excavation of the storm water retention pond north of highway 509 began. This is the first phase of the yearlong project that will remove a total of 50,000 cubic yards of oil drenched wood fill and soil from the area.

The entire project is expected to be finished by next summer, and spans ‘D’ Street from 15th to 21st and includes a portion in the rail yards.

Phase one is slated to be finished in early October, and will remove a large portion of the total fill, about 20,000 cubic yards.

“[We] need to get that pond in operation before the rains start,” Coleman said. Work will resume on the remainder of the project after the wet winter weather clears up.

So far, most of the fill has been removed from the storm water site, and back filling for the pond has begun.

The contaminated fill will be transported to a landfill in Graham. The effected areas will be re-filled with crushed rock and oil-free soil.

Contractors will also begin digging on a much smaller site at 15th and ‘D’ in the next couple of weeks.

The project is not expected to disrupt traffic, except of a minimal block at 19th and ‘D’ when the project resumes next spring.

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