More cleanup planned for Seattle's Gas Works Park

Washington's Department of Ecology is going to answer questions about cleanup efforts at Seattle's Gas Works Park during a public meeting Wednesday night, June 28.

Gas Works Park sits at the north shore of South Lake Union. The land was once home to a gas manufacturing plant, hence how the park got its name. The plant was active between 1907 and 1956. During that time, the fuel operations created considerable contamination at the site.

Previous cleanup work was finished between 1971 and 2020, but was mostly on the upland area in the park. More work remains for much of the area around the shoreline. The current proposal is to cap the shoreline soil, treat shoreline groundwater, dredge and cap sediment under the water, and set up monitoring moving forward.

The cost of the future cleanup work is estimated to be about $73 million, which will come from the city of Seattle and Puget Sound Energy. Half of this costs could be reimbursed through Ecology's remedial action grant program.

The public can register for Wednesday's meeting and sign up to make a comment at the Gas Works Park webpage. Ecology will give its presentation at 6:30 p.m. and take questions at 7:30 p.m.

This blog post originally stated that the city of Seattle would be paying the full $73 million for the cleanup work. According to the Department of Ecology, the cost will be split by the city and Puget Sound Energy, with the majority being paid for by PSE.