The Trustees' quarterly public briefings on the damage assessment and restoration planning process are typically held on the second Tuesday of each calendar quarter. There may be additional workshops and meetings during the course of the year. Those meetings will be posted here when they have been scheduled. April 17, 2001. Industrial and commercial activities are located on or adjacent to each of the waterways, and include pulp and lumber mills, shipbuilding and ship repair facilities, shipping docks, marinas, chlorine and chemical production, concrete production, aluminum smelting, oil refining and food processing plants, automotive repair shops, railroad operations, and numerous other storage, transportation, and chemical manufacturing companies.
Contaminants originate from both point and non-point sources.
The nearshore area and waterways of Commencement Bay are used extensively as rearing and feeding habitat by numerous marine species, and the Bay itself serves as a migratory pathway for salmonids. Three hatcheries annually stock approximately four million chinook, coho, and chum salmon and steelhead trout juveniles into the Puyallup River watershed. Many fish species feed on small epibenthic and benthic organisms before migrating offshore. NOAA's concerns about the Commencement Bay area involve the adverse effects to its trust resources caused by the release of hazardous substances in the Bay and its waterways, with consequent contamination of sediments on the bottom of the Bay. In October 1991, the Trustees formally initiated the damage assessment and restoration planning process by issuing a Preassessment Screen, Determination to Perform Assessment, and Notice of Intent to Perform Assessment.