Update: Taking tons of toxics out of Lincoln Park

| Environment | West Seattle beaches | West Seattle news

Thanks to Tom Erler from Restoration Logistics LLC for sharing the photo of their work today with Puget Soundkeeper Alliance at Lincoln Park. As previewed here Sunday, it’s a creosote cleanup – he says they’re “removing at least 2 tons worth of creosote & pressure treated debris from Lincoln Park beach. Work started at 7:30 and (is) continuing until mid-afternoon.” (There was a similar cleanup at Lincoln Park last year, too.)

Historical side note pointed out by a reader regarding the creosote industry in the area in general: The enterprises of the Colman family, whose many local contributions included Lincoln Park’s popular outdoor Colman Pool, included a creosote company that was founded downtown and, as noted in this HistoryLink article, later moved to West Seattle. Under later ownership, it eventually became a Superfund cleanup site and is now home to Jack Block Park and adjacent Port of Seattle container facilities.

ADDED TUESDAY MORNING: One more photo from Tom Erler:

He says that by the time they were done, the removal totaled closer to 4 tons!

Trileigh June 24, 2013 (2:21 pm)

Thanks, Restoration Logistics LLC and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance! We really appreciate your good work in keeping Lincoln Park’s beaches clean.

ACG June 24, 2013 (3:51 pm)

Thank you to all who worked to clean up that toxic debris!!

sardine June 24, 2013 (4:29 pm)

Interesting historical note.

Chris Wilke June 24, 2013 (6:06 pm)

What’s really interesting is we cleaned this entire beach just over a year ago, so all of this creosote treated wood drifted in during the last 13 months!

Creosote contains over 300 chemicals, most of them moderately to highly toxic. Most creosote contains toxic coal ash and has loads of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which can cause cancer in people and fish.

I have to admit its a good feeling to remove several tons of it from one beach in one day. I think everyone who participated shared the same feeling at the end of the day. Thanks to everyone who helped. WA-DNR, Restoration Logistics and Maple Ridge Excavating were great, and they all took great care to ensure there was no toxic sawdust left behind.

Thanks for covering this- at least one onlooker stopped by and said he heard about it on the West Seattle Blog!

Wes C Adle June 24, 2013 (6:11 pm)

The link you posted goes to the wrong sound keeper site.

I had a great time talking to Kate from Puget Soundkeeper, I’ve never met a prettier girl in a hardhat before. I was impressed with all the info she had about the project and its impact on the environment.

WSB June 24, 2013 (6:38 pm)

Wes – sorry, I’ll fix the link soon as I can

Apollo June 25, 2013 (8:08 pm)

We had a blast working with you guys! The free lunch helped;) Thanks again, and keep up the good work!

DiverLaura June 27, 2013 (1:50 am)

Quite the volume of Creosote treated wood to accumulate in just over a year!!

We are going to have a little contest over at Puget Soundkeeper Alliance’s FB page.. Guess the tonnage (or pounds) and the closest answer will win a MOST AWESOME Puget Soundkeeper Alliance Hat!! (our boss doesn’t give away freebees very often – usually you have to do a handful of beach patrols to earn your hat – so i highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity)

Of course if you want to learn more about organizing patrols, EARNING your hat and helping document more creosote and other pollutants for cleanup email us at PSA@pugetsoundkeeper.org we have a volunteer training coming up!

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