USA: Gas Works Park Maintenance Project Begins

A half-acre field at Gas Works Park in Seattle will close until next spring for a project to add a layer of soil, upgrade irrigation and drainage, and establish a new lawn.

The project is part of a larger plan being developed to clean up contaminated sediment at the bottom of Lake Union along the park.

Parts of the half-acre field just north of the park’s Play Barn pavilion contain hydrocarbon compounds. Rainwater that drains off the field can carry pollutants that accumulate in the lake sediment. A foot-deep “cap” of clean soil and a new lawn will protect a future sediment cleanup by preventing recontamination from this field.

Contractors will fence off the area, beginning Nov. 7, 2012. The fence will remain in place for 4-5 months to allow newly seeded turf grass to take root.

Gas Works Park, on the northern shore of Lake Union in Seattle, occupies the site of a plant that converted coal and oil into gas from the early 1900s until 1956. Operations at the plant, owned by predecessors of Puget Sound Energy, along with other industrial activities, contaminated the property and adjoining lake sediments. The park itself has undergone a cleanup.

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Press Release, November 8, 2012