Groundbreaking Celebrates the Start of Affordable Housing Along the Bellingham Waterfront

May 7-13 is Affordable Housing Week, championed by the Housing Development Consortium to highlight the role affordable housing plays in stabilizing our communities. See a recent affordable housing story below and more of Aspect’s Affordable Housing work here.

Staff from Aspect’s Bellingham and Seattle offices were on hand for the ceremonial groundbreaking of the first phase of the Millworks development, which will bring affordable housing to the Bellingham waterfront.

Banners at the construction site announcing both Phases of the Millworks redevelopment

Millworks is a partnership between the Port of Bellingham, Whatcom Community Foundation, and Mercy Housing Northwest (Mercy). Phase 1 of Mercy’s development includes 83 units of workforce and family rental housing plus a YMCA early learning center. The development should be ready to welcome residents next year.

Mercy Housing Northwest’s project manager Ellen Lohe (left) emceed the groundbreaking event, and Port Commissioner Michael Shepard (right) delivered remarks.

The Millworks development sits on 2.3 acres at the corner of the larger 67-acre Georgia-Pacific West cleanup site. Once home to a pulp and tissue mill, the site has undergone massive cleanup and redevelopment over the last decade, including the City of Bellingham’s popular Waypoint Park. Aspect’s environmental, geotechnical, and stormwater teams have worked extensively within the former mill’s footprint.

The building’s foundation is in place with framing starting, only 4 months after cleanup completion. Photo courtesy of Mercy Housing NW.

For the Millworks project, Aspect completed a pre-design investigation, developed a cleanup action plan, oversaw a formal public comment period, authored the engineering design report, executed an excavation compliance monitoring plan, reviewed construction plans/specs, and provided bid support. We provided oversight on the soil removal project, which also accomplished the substantial grading and site prep needed to start work on the new building. All of this occurred within a highly expedited 12-month schedule to meet Mercy’s funding requirements.

Principal Hydrogeologist Steve Germiat, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony, managed Aspect’s project team, which includes Adam Griffin, Jane Gregg, Matt Eddy, Nikolai Carroll, and Baxter Call. They worked in close coordination with the Port, RMC Architects, and the rest of the Mercy team, as well as the Washington State Department of Ecology, to reach this key milestone.

Whatcom Community Foundation’s planned Phase 2 development will include more affordable housing units and a local food campus featuring a commercial kitchen for use by food trucks and nonprofits like Meals on Wheels. Phase 2 construction is expected to begin in 2025.

Years in the Making, the Bellingham Waterfront Celebrates Significant Cleanup Milestone

Like many working waterfronts across the country, Bellingham has undergone years of effort to clean up contamination and turn historical industrial sites into useful properties for the community. After more than a decade of study and adjacent cleanups, the former Georgia-Pacific [GP] Paper Mill cleanup site (“GP West site”), the centerpiece of Bellingham’s burgeoning Waterfront District redevelopment, is poised to deal with its biggest contamination culprit – liquid mercury.

The Chlor-Alkali area is one of the trickiest cleanups of the entire Bellingham waterfront, and over a decade in the making. Photo Credit: WA Department of Ecology

The Chlor-Alkali area is one of the trickiest cleanups of the entire Bellingham waterfront, and over a decade in the making.

Photo Credit: WA Department of Ecology

A Plan in Place for one of Bellingham’s Trickiest Sites

There are a dozen cleanup sites within and along the shorelines of Bellingham Bay—by any measure, the 67-acre GP West site is likely the trickiest and most complex upland (adjacent to the shoreline/water) cleanup project of them all. To tackle the cleanup, the site was divided into halves. The half referred to as the Pulp and Tissue Mill Remedial Action Unit (RAU) was successfully remediated in 2016, allowing for the start of the Waterfront District build out including construction of the award-winning Waypoint Park. The other half of the site, known as the Chlor-Alkali Remedial Action Unit (RAU), is where the mercury lies, making it far more challenging to clean up.

Waypoint Park is thriving, with families and businesses returning to the waterfront. The Chlor-Alkali parcel is adjacent to this and will see marine industry expand and flourish when cleanup is complete.

Photo Credit: City of Bellingham

Now, after years of intense investigation and planning work, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) and the Port of Bellingham (Port) have finalized a Cleanup Action Plan for the Chlor-Alkali RAU.

Liquid Mercury is a Subsurface Challenge

The site’s mercury is an unwelcome residual from historical production of chlorine gas and sodium hydroxide (caustic) used to bleach pulp in the former GP mill’s papermaking process. Some of that mercury was released into the ground, as was some of the caustic manufactured in the process.

The mercury ‘culprit’ in the GP West subsurface for this historical paper mill site, where mercury was used in the paper-making process

Remediation crews supervising the excavation of 4,400 tons of contaminated soil removed from the site

Liquid mercury has the unique and unfortunate chemical properties of being both highly volatile and 13 times denser than water. The releases of the caustic in the same area increased the pH of the groundwater, which increased the mercury’s solubility and its ability to migrate in groundwater, allowing it to spread hundreds of feet from where the releases historically occurred. These factors, interspersed into the maze of foundation piles, beams, and other subsurface structures that remain from the former mill, make remediation of the Chlor-Alkali RAU a supremely challenging task. Additional details regarding the site’s contaminants and cleanup are available on Ecology’s webpage

A Milestone for Reviving the Waterfront

The complex Cleanup Action Plan includes a combination of removing some contaminated soil; chemically treating (stabilization/solidification) some soil in place to keep mercury from leaching further; treating groundwater to restore near-neutral conditions that will limit mercury mobility; capping some areas of lower-level contamination; and lots of monitoring throughout to assure the cleanup goals are met.

It will take several years to complete the plan’s tasks and bring the Chlor-Alkali RAU site back into productive use for the Port’s marine trade businesses. But for now, the Port and Ecology’s completion of the Chlor-Alkali Cleanup Action Plan is a momentous milestone to celebrate. It’s a significant piece of the puzzle to complete the recovery of this beautiful part of Bellingham’s waterfront.

For more information contact Principal Hydrogeologist Steve Germiat.

Zap! Pow! Remediators Unite: Environmental Science in a Comic Book

Aspect feels lucky to have a strong connection with Western Washington’s Huxley College of the Environment in Bellingham. Associate Scientist Kirsi Longley (Huxley College alumnus; featured on page 38 of the below comic!) and Principal Hydrogeologist Steve Germiat have guest lectured there over the years, talking the ins and outs of environmental remediation along with the day-to-day realities of being an environmental consultant. In fact, Steve Germiat presented to the class in March 2020, just a day before they stopped meeting on campus due to COVID-19 risks.

We wanted to turn the spotlight on this innovative and creative group taught by Professor Ruth Sofield. In just one example of creative communication, the students in the Science, Management, and Communication of Contaminated Sites (SMOCS) have taken their learning of environmental remediation and powered it into comic form. The comic is an innovative form of public outreach – and communicates the complexity of environmental cleanup to reach all audiences.

Given the recent COVID-19 public health recommendations, the class is now meeting exclusively online thus highlighting, even more, the importance of unique science storytelling that can reach many audiences even when not physically in the same location.

See the latest example of The Remediators here: https://issuu.com/ruth.sofield/docs/volumefive

James Packman Talks Interdisciplinary Skills and Water’s Role in Urban Environmental Planning to UW Class

Senior Hydrologist James Packman recently presented to “Planning as a Profession,” a senior-level urban planning class in the College of the Built Environment at the University of Washington. The nearly 30 students come from different majors and career trajectories—among them are future architects, landscape architects, city planners, urban designers, real estate professionals, construction managers, engineers, environmental scientists, and more.

James Packman, Senior Hydrologist

James’ presentation, entitled “Environmental Skills, Water Resources, and Urban Planning,” gave a holistic view of environmental considerations in urban planning—from the skills and interests that lead a person to the profession and the different disciplines working in the industry to the laws and regulations that drive project design, permitting, and building and examples of water-focused planning. His overarching message focused on interdisciplinary skills, and he gave examples of Aspect projects where collaboration between disciplines was vital to address the environmental elements.

For example, the Waypoint Park project along Bellingham’s shoreline incorporated coastal geology, hydrogeology, stormwater management, civil and geotechnical engineering, landscape architecture, habitat restoration ecology, and more to reclaim a contaminated former industrial site to an urban waterfront park.

Waypoint Park Before and After Construction
City of Bellingham’s Waypoint Park incorporated many environmental planning steps to turn a former industrial site into an urban waterfront park.

James also introduced the practical side of business consulting, or how people and firms pursue and win public work, and walked students through the Request for Qualifications / Request for Proposals process. His key message for being on winning teams is that it requires networking in and outside of one’s discipline and forging relationships with public agency staff to learn their needs.

He ended by going over a homework assignment about the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) checklist process and its key role in urban planning projects. The homework reinforced the variety of environmental disciplines—geology, hydrology, archeology, botany, wildlife biology, engineering, and more—along with professional skills—technical reading comprehension, writing, project management, public speaking, quantitative analysis, and more—that are needed to complete the checklist.

James will present to a new set of students when he returns to the class in Spring Quarter 2019.

Waypoint Park Opens Just In Time For Summer

Over the past five years, we’ve seen the Bellingham Waterfront District transform from a contaminated industrial site to a striking new waterfront park. We’re proud to have had a hand in cleaning up the site and providing geotechnical and environmental consultation throughout the design, permitting, and construction of the project. This included providing geotechnical design recommendations for siting of the 400,000-pound industrial acid ball tank turned public art piece titled “Waypoint”.

Congratulations to the City of Bellingham on your beautiful park!

Read more about the history of the park, the status of the waterway, and what’s next for the adjacent properties in this great Bellingham Herald article.

It’s a Wrap on the Cap: Port of Bellingham completes major cleanup milestone to redevelop Bellingham’s Waterfront District

A video history of the past, present, and future of the transformative Bellingham waterfront redevelopment.

Along the east side of the Whatcom Waterway in Bellingham, a layer of gray gravel stretches over the landscape. This “cap” of crushed rock and surrounding paved surfaces is a culmination of years of efforts to clean up soil and groundwater on the grounds of a former pulp and paper mill. Completion of the capping clears one major hurdle for the Port and City of Bellingham to create a new, vibrant waterfront.

Video Credit: Port of Bellingham

A historically industrial site with strong post-cleanup potential

The waterfront has always been central to Bellingham’s industrial past. Where the cap sits now was originally tideflats that were filled to create new upland for industrial use: salmon canning operations in the early 1900s, giving way to a pulp mill in the 1920s. In 2005, Georgia-Pacific (GP) sold 137 acres of land, including the 64-acre mill property, to the Port of Bellingham, and GP’s last mill operations closed in 2007. Despite the contamination that resulted from the industrial activities, the Port and the City did not give up on this property and saw the cornerstone of a new Bellingham waterfront—it only needed remediation to set the stage for productive and safe reuse.

How to Clean It Up

Heavy industrial use left some contamination in soil and groundwater across the majority of the mill property, which, for purposes of the environmental cleanup, is termed the GP West site. In 2009, the Port and the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) executed an Agreed Order to investigate and determine the appropriate “cleanup action” for the site. First, Aspect completed a Remedial Investigation to document the soil and groundwater across the entire site. While the investigation was underway, the Port and Ecology agreed to proactively undertake interim cleanup actions to permanently remove areas of high-risk soil contamination (Bunker C fuel oil and liquid mercury) while working to create the cleanup plan for the larger site.

In 2013, the Agreed Order was amended to divide the GP West site into a pair of Remedial Action Units (RAUs): the Chlor-Alkali RAU that encompasses mercury contamination from a former mercury-cell Chlorine Plant on the south end of the site; and the Pulp and Tissue Mill RAU that encompasses the former pulp mill and tissue mill areas to the north. Ecology agreed to do this to expedite cleanup and facilitate redevelopment, recognizing that cleanup of the Pulp and Tissue Mill RAU was less complicated and could be accomplished more quickly than could the Chlor-Alkali RAU. In 2014, a Cleanup Action Plan (CAP) specified the final cleanup action for the Pulp and Tissue Mill RAU. The final cleanup for that RAU involves additional removal of contaminated soil, and, in a few areas, monitoring the natural restoration of groundwater.

What it takes to put a Cap on 31 Acres

A major challenge for the capping project was achieving a protective barrier across 31 acres of highly variable surface conditions remaining after demolition of the former mill, while also maintaining accessibility and stormwater drainage until redevelopment reconstructs the area. The surface that required capping was a mish-mash of material types and grades: pavements of variable type and condition, intact concrete slabs of all dimensions and heights, crushed concrete and brick, and a hill of soil that historically served as a street onramp. Further complicating the effort was a widespread surficial layer of dirt and rocks presumed to have contamination from historical activities, termed “veneer.”

Aspect was involved throughout the capping project, from conceptual design to the construction plans and specs and bid process, and then overseeing work to ensure it was done to the CAP specifications. The capping itself took about 90 days, as outlined in these photographs:

Before – Pre-existing site surfaces requiring capping

Random intact slab with "veneer" around it.

Crushed concrete from mill demolition.  Also note that the Port saved some buildings and structures, like the “acid ball” and the “pulp digester” towers shown here, to contribute to the aesthetics of the planned redevelopment.

The hill of soil that historically served as a street onramp.

During – Regrading and consolidating contaminated material 

The initial steps of the capping project included grading off the tops of the soil knolls to match surrounding grades, as well as removing the “veneer.” The latter was done with excavators, street sweepers, and even a good old-fashioned broom in some areas. All of the excavated and swept-up contaminated materials were consolidated as fill to raise grade in a low area just south of the knolls.

During – Smoothing it out

Next, the site needed to be evened out. The contaminated soil fill was graded and compacted to a flat surface. Because it was to be capped with clean imported soil, a bright orange geotextile was placed across the contaminated soil subgrade to provide visual notification for potential future excavation through the cap during redevelopment. Adjacent stockpiles of crushed concrete and brick from prior building demolition were likewise leveled and compacted – creating a firm, flat subgrade across the entire fill area.

During – Capping it off

Once the fill was consolidated and evened out, the entire 31 acres needed to be capped. The cleanup plan called for a minimum of either 3 inches of competent hard surface (asphalt or concrete pavements or foundations), or 2 feet of clean import soil/rock, overlying the contaminated soil. Ultimately, contaminated soil was capped with 2 feet of import material (6 inches of crushed rock over 18 inches of sand and gravel) on top of the orange geotextile, while the cap across the rest of the area was a combination of pre-existing competent hard surfaces and new asphalt pavements. The capping also cleaned out and secured more than 170 vaults and other subsurface structures to eliminate physical hazards to foot and vehicle traffic and to control stormwater drainage.

Done – The finished product

The finished cap will keep people from coming into direct contact with potentially contaminated soil. The project also improved stormwater drainage, and provided an overall upgrade to the site’s aesthetic. Aspect will also continue to monitor the groundwater on the site as the Port and City plan their next steps.

What’s Next: Reconnecting the Community to the Waterfront

Just as the waterfront has been central to Bellingham’s past, it is now the key to its future. With the cap in place, the potential of this prime waterfront area is just now being unlocked. The old Granary building at the corner of the cleanup site is undergoing renovations to house shops and restaurants. The City is planning for construction later this year of the first arterials and utilities, as well as a park that will allow the community to directly access the waterfront. And rather than forget the past use of the area, the City has embraced it with a public competition to reimagine the site’s “acid ball” as an art installation within the new park.