PORT GAMBLE — A major cleanup project restarting this summer will dig up and remove more decades-old contaminated sediments, creosoted pilings and other materials from Port Gamble Bay.

Residents can get the latest news from state Department of Ecology staff on the second phase of the cleanup project, 5-7:30 p.m. April 26 in the Hood Canal Vista Pavilion, 4740 NE View Drive, Port Gamble.

The first phase took place between September 2015 and January 2016.

Ecology staff will give a presentation and answer questions about the upcoming in-water cleanup at the Port Gamble Bay and mill site. Contractors will start removing pilings in June, and expand cleanup work in mid-July.

AN INDUSTRIAL LEGACY
For more than 140 years, the now-defunct Pope & Talbot Inc. used the site to manufacture wood products. Pope Resources, created in 1985 as an independent company from Pope & Talbot, took ownership of the mill site at that time. Pope Resources leased the facility to Pope & Talbot until the mill shut down in 1995.

After that, the property was used for sorting and chipping logs, and for handling materials. Historical activities at the site contaminated the mill site and in-water sediments with creosote, dioxin and wood waste.

Pope Resources is leading the cleanup effort under Ecology’s oversight. Altogether, the in-water work will remove:

— About 6,000 creosote-coated pilings.

— Over-water structures.

— A total of about 70,000 cubic yards of wood waste and contaminated sediments. Wood waste located close to shore will be dredged, and remaining areas contaminated by wood waste will be capped with clean material.

— Thousands of tons of steel, concrete and other debris for recycling.