The Washington State Department of Natural Resources will launch a major cleanup next week of creosote-saturated pilings and debris along the Puget Sound shores of Kitsap County.
About 245 piles and 18 tons of debris will be removed from eight sites located along the eastern Kitsap Peninsula shoreline.
The cleanup is part of a larger DNR effort throughout Puget Sound to remove creosote-treated debris from the state’s marine and estuarine waters.
Projects include removing debris that washes onto area beaches, lagoons, and estuaries, as well as removing structures and pilings that are no longer functional.
DNR has contracted Blackwater Marine of Kirkland to remove and dispose of the Kitsap County pilings and debris. The project is expected to begin September 29 and continue through Nov. 7. Work will begin at the northern Point No Point water access site, move to Norwegian Point Park, and then continue south.
Creosote removal locations include: Port of Tracyton, Port of Silverdale, Norwegian Point Park, Point No Point water access site, Liberty Bay, Sandy Hook, Old Mill Park and Bolin Point.
Creosote has been used as a wood preservative for more than a century to treat telephone poles, railroad ties, piers, docks, floats and more. Thousands of derelict creosote pilings remain in Puget Sound. Many eventually break up and distribute tons of toxic debris onto beaches throughout the Sound that can be harmful to marine species.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources works with partners in local groups, governments, and private property owners to remove treated wood located on public and private property throughout Puget Sound.
DNR and partner agencies — including the state departments of Fish and Wildlife and Ecology — developed best management practices that minimize disturbances to the environment when removing the creosote saturated materials. The goal is to provide healthy, rather than contaminated, habitat. The removal of creosote from the environment is essential to preventing long-term negative effects from these materials persisting in the food web.
Since 2004, according to DNR, 16,000 tons of pilings and derelict beach debris and more than 250,000 square feet of overwater structures have been removed from Puget Sound shorelines. The Puget Sound Initiative, Washington Department of Ecology, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and others have provided project funding. The new goal is to remove 1,000 more treated piles by 2017.
