Since Commencement Bay was designated a Superfund site over 15 years ago, people have questioned whether industry in the bay and a healthy environment can co-exist, and the answer has seemed grim. A recent National Marine Fisheries Service assessment of the bay found no improvement in its health, despite years and millions of dollars spent in remediation. However, it's a hopeful sign that Simpson Tacoma Kraft Company, one of the bay's principal industries, is making a genuine effort towards a healthier bay and is bringing along neighboring industries in their effort. Simpson is working with the Department of Ecology, the Environmental Protection Agency, Citizens for a Healthy Bay, and other Commencement Bay industries in planning a redevelopment and habitat restoration project at its plant site on the St. Paul Waterway.
Joint goals are habitat restoration and redevelopment.
The plans for the project include a sediment containment facility for pollution control, habitat restoration that may include intertidal saltmarsh habitat, and a manufacturing and multi-modal transportation terminal. The original St. Paul Waterway remedial action and habitat restoration project removed contaminated sediments in the waterway, restored 17 acres of nearshore habitat, and set a precedent in Commencement Bay for privately funded, voluntary cleanups. That project celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and was so successful that the St. Paul Waterway was taken off the Superfund list of toxic hot spots. Many toxic hot spots still exist in Commencement Bay from extensive contamination by organic compounds and heavy metals from a number of historic and current point and non-point pollution sources. The sediment containment facility could be used when contaminated sediments are removed from the Thea Foss, Hylebos, and Middle waterways.