EPA Hails Cleanup of Puget Sound Superfund Site

SEATTLE —  The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that a Puget Sound estuary polluted by a pulp mill had been cleaned up--the first marine Superfund site to be so designated.

It is also the first time Superfund damage claims have been settled without litigation. No public funds were used in the cleanup.

In a statement Monday, EPA Administrator William K. Reilly praised a 12-party consent decree as “going beyond cleanup, by emphasizing rehabilitation of the environment and restoration of wildlife habitat” at the 17-acre site at the mouth of the Puyallup River. He called the arrangement a “model for other parts of the country.”

The Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co. bought the pulp-bleaching plant, the nation’s oldest, in 1985 and to date, along with the former owner, has spent over $5 million in “capping” the contaminated sediment of the estuary with a layer of clean sediment. The company must pay an estimated $3 million over the next 10 years to monitor the effectiveness of the cap.

The area, once a biological wasteland from decades of pollution, now has young salmon nibbling on crustaceans, while smelts scout the shore for spawning sites.

With the agreement as a model, cleanups on seven more nearby targets should move more quickly, said Lori Cohen, EPA’s project manager. Those projects include more than 100 parties and could cost $30 million.