Published October 2002

Opportunities eyed
for former Superfund site

By Kate Reardon
Herald Writer

It’s hard to say if 147 acres of land on the Tulalip Reservation that once held as much as 4 million tons of junk will become home to inmates, a golf course or athletic fields.

But talks could become more focused now that the former landfill no longer poses a significant threat to the public or the environment.

In September, the site was taken off the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list. Cost of the cleanup was $34 million.

Tulalip Tribal leaders and county officials are exploring the idea of building a complex that includes a new jail and offices for attorneys or courtrooms, said John McCoy, the Tulalip Tribes’ executive director of governmental affairs.

The Tulalips are also considering athletic fields or a golf course, McCoy said.

“We’ve got a few ideas, and we’re working on them,” McCoy said. “We’re in preliminary discussions with the county on this property. Because the designation has been lifted, we need to sit down and decide what that future use may be.”

McCoy said a plan could be in place within a year.

Susan Neely, Snohomish County public safety program manager, said the county has talked with tribal leaders about the need for a post-trial county jail where inmates serving a year or less would stay.

“We’d like to explore it further,” she said. “We’d have to look at what it would cost us and at our financial plan. I do want to stress this is very much just talking and no commitment.”

What’s ideal about the cleanup at the landfill site, McCoy said, is it is not in anyone’s back yard. It is on a finger of land on the Tulalip Reservation between Ebey and Steamboat sloughs and west of I-5.

“It’s out there by itself, surrounded on two sides by water,” he said.

Access could come from a new I-5 overpass, McCoy said, adding the tribes have notified the state Department of Transportation of the desire to have an overpass built there.

Ultimately, the tribes will need the EPA’s blessing before anything is built at the former landfill, said Loren McPhillips, EPA Superfund site manager. And buildings would likely be limited to one-story because of the landfill cap.

The EPA placed the landfill on its Superfund list in 1995 because of concerns that harsh contaminants such as arsenic and aluminum were leaking into surrounding wetlands and sloughs leading to the Snohomish River, McPhillips said. Contaminated sites are listed when they pose the highest risks to human health and the environment, he said.

The Seattle Disposal Co. leased the land from the Tulalip Tribes and operated the landfill from 1964 to 1979, when the EPA requested it be shut down.

As much as 4 million tons of mixed commercial and industrial waste was dumped there.

The cleanup involved five lawsuits, congressional investigations and settlements with more than 200 entities responsible for dumping the trash. About $20 million was garnered from settlements.

Cleanup included regrading 500,000 cubic yards of soil and waste; importing 1 million yards of soil, sand and topsoil; and installing more than 21 million square feet of liners and capping materials.

That cleanup was completed in October 2000. The site will be monitored for at least 30 years. As for the future of the site?

“We have plenty of opportunity, and all the options are being explored,” McCoy said.

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