Crowley Marine Services 8th Ave S

Last updated: 6/10/2026

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From May 4 - June 9, 2026, we invited comments on cleanup options for the site called Crowley Marine Services 8th Ave S. The site is in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood near the King County International Airport on the banks of the Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW). Since the early 1900s, the area was used for a variety of industrial and manufacturing activities, including sawmill operations and pipe and chain manufacturing. These activities have contributed to the contamination at the site.  
  
The following document was available for review and comment:

• Feasibility study (Part 1) (Part 2): A feasibility study compares options for cleaning up a site. All the options must meet Washington State standards. The goal of the comparison is to find the method that provides the most protective and permanent cleanup that is still practical.

Read the feasibility study fact sheet.

Read comments

We presented information about this cleanup site at the following events:

• Tuesday, May 12 (6:00 p.m.)
  South Park Neighborhood Association
  Duwamish River Community Hub 
  8600 14th Ave S., Seattle

• Monday, May 18 (7:00 p.m.) Note: This event was added after the fact sheet was mailed.
  Georgetown Community Council
  Georgetown Old City Hall 
  6202 13th Ave S., Seattle

If you missed us at the neighborhood association, you can view the presentation here.

• Wednesday, June 3, 2026 (4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.)
  South Park Playground
  738 S Sullivan St., Seattle
  Join us at the playground, learn about our work along the Lower Duwamish Waterway, and make a sun print.

We are currently reviewing and drafting our responses to the five comments we received during this comment period. When responses are finalized, we will post them to this webpage and send them back to those who commented. We appreciate the interest in this cleanup site. If you have questions about the site in the meantime, please reach out to Beau Johnson and Meredith Waldref (contact information to the left).

The site is about 16 acres of industrial waterfront property. Before the channelization of the Duwamish River in the early 1900s, the area was agricultural land and an open field pasture. Since the early 1900s, the area has since been used for a variety of industrial and manufacturing activities, including sawmill operations and pipe and chain manufacturing. The southeastern portion of the site includes the previous path of the Duwamish River before it was channelized. This section is now called Slip 4. Georgetown’s only public river access point is at the end of this street. 

The site tenant, Waste Management, operates a transloading facility at the site to load contaminated soils and dredged sediments from trucks and barges onto rail cars. This facility is currently used during in-water cleanup activities overseen by the EPA. 

The Lower Duwamish Waterway drainage basin is divided into source control areas. This site is located within the Slip 4 Early Action Area (river mile 2.8) source control area on the east bank of the river.

Contamination

Contamination at this site is from heavy industrial use since the 1920’s.

Soil contaminants include:

• Metals such as arsenic and copper
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
• Carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs)

Groundwater contaminants include:

• Metals such as arsenic and copper
• Carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs)

Sediment contaminants include:

• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
• Carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs)
  

Cleanup timeline

In 2009, Ecology negotiated a legal agreement called an Agreed Order with property owner 8th Avenue Terminals, the Potentially Liable Person (PLP) for the Crowley Marine Services 8th Avenue S Site.  In 2014, 8th Avenue Terminals sold the property to DeNovo Seattle LLC.  The Agreed Order was amended to add the new property owner, DeNovo Seattle LLC.  As of 2019, DeNovo Seattle LLC is no longer the property owner, and the property is currently owned by 8th Avenue Terminals.

The Agreed Order describes the work that the PLPs agree to perform on the site. Under this legal agreement, the PLP is required to complete the following:

• Remedial Investigation (RI). The purpose of the RI is to define the nature and extent of contamination at the site and to determine if it is contributing to the sediment contamination in the Lower Duwamish Waterway. During the RI, the PLPs collected data necessary to adequately characterize the contamination in soil, groundwater, stormwater, and sediments. (Completed in 2024) 
• Feasibility Study (FS). The FS will use the results of the RI to evaluate and choose measures to clean up contamination and prevent recontamination of the sediment. (Currently available for public comment.)
• Draft Cleanup Action Plan (DCAP). Ecology will identify a preferred cleanup action based on the results of the FS. (Expected after the FS comment period.)

The Potentially liable person, 8th Avenue Terminals, Inc, prepared a feasibility study, which evaluated five different cleanup alternatives. The costs and environmental benefits of the alternatives were then compared, leading to the selection of alternative 2 as the proposed cleanup option.

The following five cleanup options were considered:

• Alternative 1: Surface capping, groundwater cutoff, monitored natural attenuation, and institutional controls
• Alternative 2: Surface capping, groundwater cutoff and treatment, monitored natural attenuation, and institutional controls
• Alternative 3: In-situ solidification/stabilization, groundwater cutoff and treatment, and monitored natural attenuation
• Alternative 4: In-situ solidification/stabilization and monitored natural attenuation
• Alternative 5: Soil excavation, groundwater recovery, and monitored natural attenuation

Alternative 2 consists of the following cleanup activities:

• Surface capping: Areas with contaminated soil that are currently unpaved would be covered with new asphalt. This "cap" creates a barrier between people and the contamination and helps prevent rainwater from pushing contamination deeper into the ground.
• Groundwater cutoff and treatment: A wall would be built underground near the shoreline to stop contaminated groundwater from flowing into the LDW. Most of the walls will be made from a clay-soil mix that blocks water. However, five special treatment sections, called permeable reactive barriers (PRBs), would be added to clean the water that flows through them. These PRBs would contain natural 
  materials (like clay, sand, gravel, and special metals) that remove harmful chemicals such as arsenic, copper, and certain oily pollutants. Before building the treatment sections of the wall, tests would be done to find the best materials for filtering out the pollution. The filters in the wall are expected to last about 10 years and would be replaced when needed.

• Monitored natural attenuation: A cleanup method that reduces concentrations of contaminants through natural processes over time. The PLP will conduct frequent groundwater monitoring to make sure levels are reducing.
• Institutional controls: Legal tools like deed restrictions would be put in place to make sure the capped areas aren’t disturbed and that the groundwater under the property isn’t used in the future.

This site is part of Ecology’s Lower Duwamish Waterway source control efforts, because it may be contributing pollution to the Lower Duwamish Waterway (LDW) Superfund Site. The 5-mile stretch of the Duwamish River that flows north into Elliot Bay was added to the Superfund National Priorities List by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2001.

The sediments (mud) in the river contain a wide range of contaminants due to decades of industrial activity and runoff from urban areas. EPA is leading efforts to clean up the river sediments.

Ecology is leading efforts to control sources of contamination from the surrounding land. The long-term goal is to minimize recontamination of the river sediment and restore water quality in the river.

The Crowley Marine Services 8th Avenue S Site is one of several that will be cleaned up as part of Ecology’s Source Control Strategy – to control sources of pollution to the river. Contaminants in the soil and groundwater around the river pose a risk to human health and the environment. They can also find their way into the river through storm runoff and other pathways. For more information, visit the Lower Duwamish Waterway Source Control page.

We will consider all comments received during this public comment period and may make changes to the documents.  If the documents require significant changes, we will hold another public comment period. 

The next step in the cleanup process for this site is the creation of a cleanup action plan which will describe the cleanup in more detail. This document will be released for a public comment period.