State Ecology moving ahead with $27 million cleanup at contaminated Bellingham shipyard

BELLINGHAM — A $27 million cleanup will start later this year on contamination that dates back 100 years or more from ship-building and other marine industries at the south end of Harris Avenue in Fairhaven.

Soil will be removed from a 5-acre site on land at the Harris Avenue Shipyard in the first phase of the project, according to the state Department of Ecology. A second phase, involving another 5 acres of underwater sediment, will begin in 2027, Ecology’s Scarlet Tang told The Bellingham Herald.

Cost of the first phase of the project is about $6.5 million, and the second phase will cost about $2.1 million, Tang said. The Port of Bellingham is responsible for all costs, but it is eligible for some state reimbursement.

Contaminants include heavy metals, PCBs, petroleum and other toxic compounds, an Ecology statement said.

A public comment period on a “consent decree” with the Port of Bellingham, which is responsible for the cleanup, is open from Monday through March 12.

Officials from Ecology, the Port and the Bellingham-based environmental nonprofit RE Sources will present project information and answer questions in a walking tour of the site from noon to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at Fairhaven Shipyard, 201 Harris Ave.

Shipbuilding began in the early 1900s, and the Port started leasing to other industries in 1966, Ecology said.

Both the state of Washington and the Port own the property.

In 1998, the Port began investigating sediment at the site. In 2003 the Port and Ecology entered into a legal agreement for a comprehensive investigation of marine pollution and in 2010 they agreed to examine soil and groundwater.

Some contaminated soil was removed under an “interim action” in 2018.

The Harris Avenue Shipyard site is one of 12 cleanup sites in Bellingham Bay, Ecology said.

Other sites include the I&J Waterway, the RG Haley site north of Boulevard Park, and a former landfill at the south end of Cornwall Avenue.