Case Study: Grant-Funded Brownfield Pilot Project

Client: Boat fabrication company Location: King County (Seattle), WA Contact for environmental projects: Doug Hillman

Project Background & Challenges

Decades of industrial practices contaminated soils and groundwater at this site on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, impeding its transfer and redevelopment. An aluminum-boat fabrication company wanted to relocate its 90-person operation to the site, but conventional financing required environmental closure.

Solution

Aspect assisted the boat fabricators in obtaining outside funding for the environmental activities and then executed a cleanup that resulted in a No Further Action letter from Ecology. Funding was obtained as an EPA Brownfield grant within the Ballard-Interbay North Manufacturing Industrial Center (BINMIC). Three environmental issues were resolved — contamination by petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, and metal-laden sandblast grit. Our work included implementing small-scale source-control activities, assessing natural attenuation, and negotiating conditional point of compliance for groundwater discharging from the site to the canal. Although the site was closed under Ecology’s Voluntary Cleanup Program, we also achieved regulatory concurrence with the Army Corps and Washington DNR as stewards of the Lake Washington Ship Canal.