Garden Plaza

Shell built a heating oil distribution facility on the northwestern corner of this site in 1943. Sunset Coal and Oil ran the facility from 1950–1967. The Renton Boilerworks occupied the east-central portion of the property from 1960 to 1970.

The site received a conditional No Further Action (NFA) determination in 1994, and a restrictive covenant was filed for the property. No active cleanup work was done. There was limited groundwater monitoring between 1995 and 1998. In 2001, when the monitoring was complete, the 1994 covenant was replaced with an updated restrictive covenant and the conditions were removed from the NFA.

The site is now occupied by two vacant office buildings and a multi-level parking garage.

We review sites with institutional controls (like restrictive covenants) about every five years, to make sure the controls remain effective and the cleanup still protects living things. Our 2023 review concluded that this cleanup and covenant may not be protective of human health and the environment. 

The findings include:

• Ecology's 2001 NFA opinion letter and the 2001 Restrictive Covenant indicate that total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were remediated in soil and groundwater, and that vinyl chloride and arsenic in groundwater were the only remaining contaminants and media of concern. Ecology’s 2001 NFA indicated that activity and use restrictions were no longer necessary for soil and TPH impacts, which resulted in the 2001 covenant.
• Investigations conducted in 2017 and 2021 identified additional contaminants of concern (cPAHs, PCBs, and naphthalene above soil cleanup levels) that were not previously analyzed, and additional areas of TPH contamination above soil and groundwater cleanup levels.
• Because the soil restrictions were removed by the 2001 covenant, the remaining restrictions may not be effective long-term in protecting human health and the environment from the contaminated soil.

Ecology's 2001 Site NFA opinion letter and the 2001 Restrictive Covenant do not accurately represent current site conditions. Ecology will rescind the No Further Action determination.