B & L Wood Waste Landfill Hydrological Field Measurements #1 - River Gauges on Waymarking.com

This Gauge is taking hydrological field measurements in a ditch contaminated by Arsenic from the B & L Wood Waste Landfill site.

SITE DESCRIPTION (Source Washington State Department of Ecology)

The B&L Woodwaste site is located at 2201 6th Avenue, Milton in a mixed residential/agricultural and wetland area. It is southeast of Interstate 5 between Fife Way and a Puget Power access road.

This site was used as an industrial landfill from mid 1970’s until the early ‘80’s. Wood chips from log sort yards, slag from the old Asarco smelter in North Tacoma and soil from the Commencement Bay Nearshore/Tideflats area were dumped here.

In 1982, the Commencement Bay Nearshore/Tideflats area, including Hylebos Waterway and the B&L Woodwaste site, were added to the
National Priorities List by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The B&L Woodwaste site was named as a source of arsenic, copper and lead.

In 1992, Ecology issued an Enforcement Order requiring Asarco, Inc. (Asarco) , Murray Pacific Corporation (Murray Pacific) and Executive Bark, Inc, site owner, to do the following:
# Consolidate the 18 acre site into an 11 acre pile.
# Construct a multi-layer capping system to prevent metals from escaping from the site.
# Install and operate a groundwater monitoring well system.

Create a plan to address any failure of the original remedy.

Monitoring during the mid-1990’s discovered elevated arsenic in the ditch system that surrounds the pile and increased arsenic in groundwater outside of the landfill containment system, including a wetland next to the site.

In 2002, Asarco’s funds became unavailable and they were unable to complete the rest of the Cleanup Action Plan. In 2005, Ecology amended the original Enforcement Order and required the PLPs to complete:

* Evaluation of several potential remedies to contain the release of contaminated groundwater from the site
* Investigation of the wetland area to determine what remedial action is needed.

In 2006, Asarco entered into bankruptcy proceedings and has failed to contribute towards cleanup efforts since that time. Murray Pacific has continued with efforts to prepare a Cleanup Action Plan.

As part of an existing Enforcement Order, Ecology is now requiring Murray Pacific and Asarco to carry out requirements of a Cleanup Action Plan including:

* Constructing a groundwater barrier wall around existing capped landfill.
* Treating arsenic contaminated groundwater from within the groundwater barrier and nearby wetland with pump and treat system.
* Constructing a treatment system to prevent arsenic in wetlands from reaching the Hylebos Creek.

RIVER GAUGE INFORMATION: It appeared to be only 6" depth of contaminated water in this ditch. A Groundwater Monitoring well was on the other side of the contaminated ditch water. WEB LINK FOR RIVER GAUGE: [Web Link] ANY ADDITIONAL WAYPOINT: Not Listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/10/2021 Rock Chalk visited it