Pacific Creosoting Company
Treated wood from the site was used to build wharves in San Francisco, flood control channels in Los Angeles, and the Panama Canal.
[4] The facilities remaining buildings, located along the southside of Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island, were documented in a 1996 Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) project.
[5] The severity of pollution from the Wyckoff Company wood treatment plant was first documented in the 1970’s by state and federal agencies, but it was only when property values started to drop in 1983 that the Bainbridge community at large became involved.
The fact that this environmental pollution has damaged an ecosystem to the extent that shellfish cannot be collected in that area is in direct violation of the Treaty of Point Elliott.
The Treaty of Point Elliott was the initial agreement signed in 1855 where Native Peoples, represented by the, “Dwamish, Suquamish, Sk-kahl-mish, Sam-ahmish, Smalh-kamish, Skope-ahmish, St-kah-mish, Snoqualmoo, Skai-wha-mish, N'Quentl-ma-mish, Sk-tah-le-jum, Stoluck-wha-mish, Sno-ho-mish, Skagit, Kik-i-allus, Swin-a-mish, Squin-ah-mish, Sah-ku-mehu, Noo-wha-ha, Nook-wa-chah-mish, Mee-see-qua-guilch, Cho-bah-ah-bish, and other allied and subordinate tribes and bands of Indians occupying certain lands situated in said Territory of Washington”[9] ceded their land to the U.S. government, with the stipulation that reservation land would be allocated and provided, and that they would have continued access to their traditional hunting and fishing grounds.
The Suquamish tribe originally inhabited Bainbridge Island before the Treaty of Point Elliott, and relocated to the Port Madison Indian Reservation in the subsequent years.
During this time, little information is available about the transition process for the Suquamish Peoples, although it has been noted that they continued to harvest their traditional foods from the beaches while the area was being largely disseminated of its timber resources.
[17] The Association of Bainbridge Communities (ABC) worked closely with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1985 to receive a spot on the National Priority List, which would then make the Wyckoff pollution available for federal cleanup funds under the Superfund allocation.
[28] Within the pressurized compartments, crystals formed to block passage of liquid, along with inconsistent flux of water flow and temperature due to seasonality.
[25] They also constructed a steel sheet pile wall to contain creosote seeps into the bay,[32] however it is unclear how much groundwater and soils have been processed since the failure of the steam enhanced pump and treat operation failed.
However, a broad overview of the plan is listed, including: removing all of the machinery from the failed steam enhanced pump and treat operation, creating a diversion subterranean wall for clean ground water to be diverted so as not to mix with creosote infiltrated ground water, immobilizing 267,000 cubic yards of contaminants in the current creosote polluted upper aquifer with a cement slurry (important to note that lower aquifer contamination is not addressed in this current action plan), creating outfall drains and caps for all impacted areas, and creating new “institutional controls” for how to best not disturb the cap moving forward.
In 2012, NOAA partnered with the Suquamish Tribe for a restoration project planting eelgrass on refilled dredged channel areas around Eagle Harbor that were created in the construction of the Wyckoff Co. wood treatment operation.
