Whatcom County MRC Projects -
Marine Creosote Log Remediation Project

Project Partner with the City of Bellingham

The Whatcom County Marine Creosote Piling Remediation Project began in 2002. The City of Bellingham received a $45,000 grant through the Washington State Department of Ecology to implement the project. The Whatcom County Marine Resources Committee contributed $24,000 to the project in 2002/2003 in order to help expand the area covered through the inventories and removals. The MRC funds also enabled a fixed piling inventory in Drayton Harbor and Bellingham Bay for source analysis.

Creosoted pilings and remnants from piling projects are a continuous source of pollution to marine beaches, with damaging environmental impacts, especially to forage fish spawning areas high on the intertidal zone. Some of these abandoned pilings work their way out of the sediments and wash up on the beaches as "rogue" logs. Many of these rogue logs remain on the beaches, leaching a chemical soup that includes polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for years, poisoning valuable beach habitat and biota important to the salmon food chain. For more information about creosote visit the City of Bellingham Environmental Resources.

Prior to this project, the multitude of single pilings, dolphins and old piling fields that are in the marine environment had not been inventoried or evaluated for treatment or removal. Many of the "fixed" pilings are abandoned and lack a remediation plan. There also had been no plan of action for removing and properly disposing of rogue logs. The Whatcom County Marine Creosote Piling Remediation Project involved surveying, classifying and subsequently removing creosote debris from the Whatcom County nearshore environment.

Approximately 100 tons of rogue creosote-treated wood was removed from the shores of Whatcom County during the course of the project between February of 2002 and July of 2003. More detailed information is available for the specific reaches of Whatcom County shorelines that were inventoried by selecting a reach from the list below:

• Bellingham Bay/ Chuckanut Bay Area
  This area includes the shores between Marine Park and Larrabee State Park in the southern part of Bellingham Bay. Fixed pilings were inventoried between Marine Park and Teddy Bear Cove, but not any further south. There may be some private docks that have fixed creosote-treated pilings in them between Teddy Bear Cove and Larrabee State Park. There were approximately 378 fixed pilings in the area between Marine Park and Teddy Bear Cove. The majority of these are in railroad trestles. All of the fixed pilings at Marine Park are very old and weathered and may be a potential source of rogue logs.
• City of Bellingham Area (Fairhaven, South Hill, Whatcom Industrial, Central Waterfornt, Squalicum Harbor, Squailicum Industrial, Cliffside Drive)
  This area consists of the shoreline between the ferry terminal in Fairhaven and the Nooksack River delta. There are over 14,673 fixed creosote-treated pilings in this area. The inventory of the area around the Whatocm Waterway has not yet been completed.
• Lummi Bay Area
  The Lummi Bay area consists of the shoreline between the Phillips Conoco/Tosco Refinery pier and the west side of the Lummi Reservation Peninsula.
• Lummi Island Area
  The North Lummi Island Area begins at the west end of Sunrise Road and goes around the northern point of the island to Gooseberry Point. The section of shoreline from the southwestern most point of the North Lummi Island Area to Fern Point was the only section of this area that was inventoried. The South Lummi Island Area begins at the west end of Sunrise Road and goes around the southern point of the island up to Gooseberry Point. Only a small section of this area was inventoried. The area inventoried was from Carter Point to the northwest boundary of this area.
• Cherry Point Area (Point Whitehorn, BP/Arco Refinery, Intalco Aluminum, Phillips Conoco/Tosco Refinery)
  The Cherry Point Area extends from the Phillips Conco/Tosco Refinery to Birch Bay State Park. Approximately 869 cubic feet of creosote-treated wood was found on the shores of the Cherry Point reach during the first round of inventory in the spring and summer of 2002. A year later, prior to any removals, 1,050 cubic feet was present. About 909 cubic feet of the total amount was removed in July of 2003. The drift cells at Cherry Point move primarily in a southerly direction. Some of the rogue logs and timbers in this area may be coming from British Columbia, and other possible sources of the materials are the refinery piers at Cherry Point.
• Birch Bay Area
  The initial inventory from Birch Bay State Park to the north side of the marina in May, June and July of 2002 found approximately 1,286 cubic feet of creosote-treated wood on the beaches. About 1,246 cubic feet were removed in August of 2002. About 258 cubic feet were found in the follow-up inventory completed in the spring of 2003. Roughly 29 cubic feet of this was removed in May of 2003. The majority of the materials consisted of pilings and pile stubs, but there were also significant numbers of timbers, and a small number of railroad ties.
• Drayton Harbor/ Blaine Area (Drayton Harbor, Semiahmoo)
  The shores of Blaine, from the south end of Birch Point to the Peace Arch border crossing, had approximately 892 cubic feet of rogue creosote-treated wood present at the time of the initial inventory in the summer and fall of 2002. By May of the next year there was roughly 1053 cubic feet, 595 cubic feet of which was removed in May of 2003.
• 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 project received overwhelming support from various local groups and individuals. Funding is being sought to continue rogue creosote material removals in Whatcom County, and to begin similar efforts in Skagit, San Juan, and Island Counties. All the coastal counties of Puget Sound have expressed their desire to initiate similar efforts. The success of this project is due in large part to the partnerships that have been developed with local government, industries, non-profit groups and individuals.