(New look for shore at Seafarers' Memorial Park - HBB Landscape Architecture)
Plans to clean up the former Scott Paper Mill site drew concerns from several people who testified at a public hearing by Port officials. Nearly 50 people crowded the Port meeting room Thursday night for the hearing.
Over the next two years, the Port of Anacortes and the state Department of Ecology will clean up the 36-acre site, which is just south of Cap Sante Marina and east of Q Ave. The site is currently owned by the Port of Anacortes, MJB Properties and other smaller landowners.
City Council member Cynthia Richardson said she’s concerned about the number of trucks that will carry contaminated soil from the site to pier 2 where the soil will be cleaned or hauled off to another site. Richardson said “This will have a considerable impact on city streets and the city should be compensated.”
City Building Dept. director Don Measamer said the city wants $60,000 to compensate for what he called “the serious degradation of city streets.” The plan calls for removing approximately 48,500 cubic yards of soil.
After the meeting, Port Executive Director Bob Hyde said the Port will talk to the city about damage caused by the increased truck traffic. He said “We’ll have a deal.”
Bob Elsner, with the Port, said there is contaminated soil under the park building at Seafarers’ Memorial Park, but that the Port will not have to tear down the buildings. He said the Port will cap the area around the building with concrete.
Elsner also said the Port will remove a creosote breakwater at the entrance to Cap Sante and will add two new concrete rock breakwaters in the area offshore from the park building.
The cleanup will cost an estimated $20 million to $25 million, with the state Department of Ecology covering about half the cost and the Port and MJB Properties covering the rest. The state has put the project, part of the Puget Sound Initiative, on the fast track.
Ecology will hold an open house on the project March 3, with a public hearing later in March. The work is set to start this summer.