Dept. of Natural Resources focused on future as $3.5M cleanup project starts in Tacoma

State and local officials announced plans Tuesday to expand a multimillion-dollar aquatic cleanup program as a crane started pulling 1,200 creosote pilings from the Tacoma Waterfront behind them.

Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz led the Tuesday press conference as remnants from the old Dickman Mill were pulled from the water. The mill sat off the waterfront from the 1890s until closing in 1977, when Franz said she was only seven years old. 

Two years later, the mill burned down, with its memory deteriorating over time with the toxic pilings, treated with a preservative called creosote that’s dangerous for marine life. Franz said she still remembers the mill’s morning bell that woke up Tacoma, but she was that bell Tuesday. 

“We are now far ahead of 1977, now finally saying it’s time for this facility to be removed,” Franz said. “The fact is, there’s about 1,200 pilings behind us that hold more than history; they hold a lot of toxicity that is actually harming our salmon, it’s harming our eelgrass, it’s harming our waters.”

For the average person, the pilings look like the remains of an old pier, but Puyallup Tribe Chairman Bill Sterud said he sees them for what they are: a killer of the tribe’s fish.

He invited people to think of the “old days,” when the waterfront was taken from his tribe and largely developed without them. The creosote pilings being lifted out of the shoreline represent the new days, Sterud said, emphasizing the importance of the effort and those in the future. 

Franz applauded the environmental and economic investments, like this effort, that Sterud and the Puyallup Tribe have pushed for; however, she said it wouldn’t have been possible without the state Department of Natural Resources’ Aquatic Derelict Structures Program.

The Legislature unanimously passed legislation in 2023 to prop up the ADS Program and provide funding to remove the derelict structures, like the pilings. While the state allotted over $48 million for the work, it set aside $10.8 million for four projects called the “Filthy Four.”

“The great thing is the moment we asked the legislature for funding around the “Filthy Four,” they stepped up within the very first year,” Franz said, “funding all four removals.”

The first checked off the list was the removal of the former High Tide Seafoods Pier earlier this fall in Neah Bay, with Tacoma’s 1,200 creosote pilings following. According to a DNR news release, two barges and a crane will continue that $3.5 million project through mid-January. 

The other two projects among the “Filthy Four” will remove the Triton-American Pier in Anacortes and Ray’s Boathouse Pier in Ballard, but Franz doesn’t want DNR to stop there. 

Rep. Dan Bronoske, D-Lakewood, joined briefly to note that this project and other efforts will require continued investment from the state. He said cleaning up the mill is a great first step, but he wants to see it as one among many others in prioritizing the health and beauty of the landscape. 

“My hope is when people see the beauty of this water returned, and they see how the salmon and our kelp and eelgrass are returning,” Franz said, “that then the legislature and our communities and our tribes all coming together will be able to move to actually removing the 'Dirty Dozen' and then the 'Toxic 25.'”

Franz noted that DNR hopes to finish all four of the "Filthy Four" projects by next year, "in time for us to put our funding request into the Legislature for the 'Dirty Dozen.'"