Troy Laundry Seattle

The Department of Ecology (Ecology) and Ponte Gadea have entered into a legal agreement called a Prospective Purchaser Consent Decree (PPCD) prior to the sale of a downtown Seattle property. The property is located at 300 Boren Avenue North and 399 Fairview Avenue North (previously listed as 307 Fairview Avenue North). 


The PPCD requires the operators to:

    * Monitor groundwater beneath the property;
    * Monitor groundwater beneath the adjacent rights-of-way located north (Harrison Street), west (Boren Avenue North), and south (Thomas Street) of the property;
    * Perform additional groundwater treatment if deemed necessary.

The Public Participation Plan details how people can be involved in the progress of this cleanup site.

View these documents by following the links below, or go to the "View Documents" link.

The Troy Laundry Seattle cleanup site is located at 399 Fairview Ave N and 300 Boren Ave N in Seattle, WA. It operated as an industrial laundry and dry-cleaning facility from 1926 until 1985. The Seattle Times Company purchased the property in 1985 and sold it in 2011 to Touchstone SLU LLC (Touchstone). In 2013, Touchstone agreed to perform an early partial cleanup, detailed in the section below. Later in 2013, Touchstone and another company merged to become TB TS/RELP LLC. This company is responsible for implementing the Cleanup Action Plan. In 2019, the building was sold to Ponte Gadea Seattle, LLC (Ponte Gadea), under a Perspective Purchaser Consent Decree. 

Contamination

Hazardous dry-cleaning solvents, heating oil, and gasoline products were used and stored in 19 above- and under-ground tanks located on the Property. Dry cleaning solvents and petroleum were released on the Property, resulting in soil and groundwater contamination. Contaminants found included:

• Tetrachloroethene (PCE) and its degradation compounds trichloroethene (TCE),
  cis-1,2-dichloroethene (DCE), and vinyl chloride (VC)
• Gasoline, diesel, and oil-range petroleum hydrocarbons

Interim Action

An interim action (early partial cleanup) was conducted between 2014 and 2017 alongside the redevelopment of the property. The following actions addressed soil and groundwater contamination both on- and off-property:

• The Seattle Times Company installed and operated a soil vapor extraction (SVE) system at the site in 2011.
• Through 2014-2015, over 96,000 tons of contaminated soil were removed from the property.      
• A network of groundwater injection wells was installed during redevelopment of the site after 2015. These wells were designed to treat contamination in the groundwater.  
• During redevelopment of the site, a 5-inch-thick concrete slab was installed beneath the five levels of underground parking, along with an HVAC system that protects the new buildings from vapor intrusion. Vapor intrusion occurs when chemical vapors from contaminated soil or groundwater move through the ground and enter buildings.
• Indoor air sampling was conducted in 2018 and 2019 to check if vapor intrusion could still be present on the site after redevelopment. Results showed no contamination above state cleanup levels.

The Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) is Washington’s environmental cleanup law. It provides requirements for contaminated site cleanup and sets standards that protect human health and the environment. Ecology enacts the MTCA and oversees cleanups. The MTCA site cleanup process is completed in steps (see graphic below) over a variable timeline.

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