Ultra Custom Care Cleaners

Ecology held a pubic comment period from September 26 - October 25, 2022 for a Consent Decree, Remedial Investigation/ Feasibility Study, and Cleanup Action Plan for the Ultra Custom Care Cleaners cleanup site. This site is located in downtown Bothell and is one of six sites in the historic downtown area that have received grant funding from Ecology to help with the cost of cleanup. 

Ecology and the City responded to all comments received during the open comment period. None of the comments resulted in changes the documents. These documents are now final.

A schedule of the next steps of the cleanup process is located in Exhibit C of the Consent Decree on page 79. 

October 2022 Community Mailer

If you would like to be added to the mailing list for this cleanup site, please contact Meredith Waldref (Outreach Specialist) or Sunny Becker (Site Manager). Contact information is on the left. 

The Ultra Custom Care Cleaners property is located at 18300 – 18304 Bothell Way NE (also known as the State Route 527), Bothell, Washington.  It occupies the northeast corner of the intersection of Bothell Way NE and NE 183rd Street.  This 0.25 acre property consists of a vacant rectangular lot and a single building that formerly housed, from north to south, the Ultra Custom Care Cleaners dry cleaning facility, Frank’s Hair Design hair salon, and the Laundry Basket Laundromat. 
 
Early records show that from the early 1950s until 1967 Raincheck Cleaners and laundry operated at the site in a building located in the southwest corner of the Property.    The building that housed Raincheck laundry was demolished in the late 1960s.  The current building that Ultra Care Cleaners occupied on the property was built in 1967.  As part of the downtown redevelopment plan, the City of Bothell acquired the property in February 2012 in order to accommodate renovation and expansion of the City Hall municipal campus and related public/private amenities.
 
Several investigations conducted in 2001, 2002, and 2004 as independent remedial actions began to characterize the Site. These investigations indicated that soil and groundwater contained halogenated volatile organic compounds (HVOCs), primarily the dry cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene (a.k.a., perchloroethene or PCE).  In addition, degradation or breakdown compounds of PCE such as trichloroethylene (TCE), cis-1,2-dichloroethylene (cis-1,2-DCE), and Vinyl Chloride (VC) were observed. 
 
A Phase II Environmental Site Assessment conducted in 2009 and supplemental investigation in 2011 of the City’s Crossroads Redevelopment Project area concluded that PCE contaminated groundwater observed at the Crossroads Development Site originates at the former Raincheck Cleaners and Laundry facility.  The contaminants are migrating south along utility corridors located in Bothell Way NE.