Bremerton Gasworks Included in EPA’s List of Highly Contaminated Sites (USA)

Bremerton Gasworks, a former coal gasification plant that operated in Bremerton, Washington from 1930 to 1963, will be listed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s national list of highly contaminated sites.

Bremerton Gasworks is located a mile and a half from downtown Bremerton, along the Port of Washington Narrows. EPA will manage the site under the Superfund cleanup program.

“Cleaning up Bremerton Gasworks will help us shut off one more source of industrial contamination that threatens Puget Sound,” said Dan Opalski, EPA Region 10 Superfund Director in Seattle. “Putting this site on our Superfund list will ensure this site gets cleaned up once and for all.”

Sediments in the Port of Washington Narrows and soils and groundwater at Bremerton Gasworks are contaminated with polyaromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs from tars associated with the gasification process, plus toxic metals and benzene.

EPA, the Washington State Department of Ecology, Cascade Natural Gas, and the U.S. Coast Guard have been involved in assessments of the site and an earlier beach cleanup. Contamination left on the site could still pollute the Washington Narrows and Puget Sound. The Suquamish Tribe uses this area as a subsistence fishery. EPA will work in close partnership with these agencies, the company, and the Suquamish Tribe to clean up the site.

[mappress]

Dredging Today Staff, May 9, 2012; Image: greylockenv