Whatcom County MRC Projects - Marine Restoration and Protection

Marine Creosote Log Remediation Project

Marine Creosote Log Remediation Project
Project Partner with the City of Bellingham

Point Roberts Area

Roughly 1,972 cubic feet of rogue creosote-treated wood was found from the northeast border to the northwest border of Point Roberts in November of 2002. There were a huge number of timbers and pilings that appear to be dock structures, and also lots of pile stubs. An entire dolphin, which looked fairly new, with 6 pilings over 55 feet long each, had washed up on the south part of the point. No removal of rogue creosote-treated wood has been done at Point Roberts to date.

The creosote materials were pretty thick along the beaches the entire way around the point. One spot that had a rather significant accumulation in comparison with the rest of Point Roberts is on the east side of the marina where there is also a lot of untreated driftwood. The drift cells on either side of the point move in a northward direction, and along the southern part there are a few different cells that move in different directions. At the marina there is a cell that moves both east and west, and on the west side of that there is a cell that moves northwest around the corner. There is also a cell that moves west on the eastern half of the southern coast, and from the southeast corner there is a cell that moves north around the corner. It is not possible to draw any conclusions about future movement of creosote materials at this time since only one inventory was done.

The Point Roberts marina and the derelict pilings in front of the casino on the west side of the point are the only areas along the shores of Point Roberts that have significant numbers of fixed pilings that may be sources of rogue logs and timbers. Rogue creosote materials may be moving south on Point Roberts from sources in British Columbia, or may be floating in from the straights.