Jeld Wen

A Puget Sound Initiative site - Reaching the goal of a healthy, sustainable Puget Sound.

Ecology conducted a 60-day public comment period (July 19 – Aug. 17, 2021) on  a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study report for the Jeld-Wen cleanup site. It described the nature and extent of contamination at the site, and evaluated options for cleanup. You can read about the studies in a fact sheet, and read the comments we received and our responses in a responsiveness summary.

The Jeld-Wen Site (former Nord Door facility) is located on the Snohomish River waterfront at 300 West Marine View Drive. The site consists of five adjoining parcels with a combined upland area of approximately 36 acres, as well as adjacent tidal mudflats.

Operations at the site have included door and casket manufacturing, wood treating, fish net storage and saw milling:

• 1920s-1985: National Pole Company treated poles in the uplands area prior to the 1940s. By the mid-1940s, Nord Door was operating the site as a stile and rail door plant. Nord Door operated an oil-fired boiler on the eastern portion of the site prior to 1957. Former above and below ground storage tanks (USTs/ASTs) were located in the eastern portion of the site along West Marine View Drive and also further to the west, beneath what is now the southern portion of the main manufacturing building.
• 1986-mid-1990s: Jeld-Wen acquired the property in May 1986 through the bankruptcy court. Jeld-Wen’s operations included the purchase of rough green wood; drying, planing and cutting the lumber; and assembly of finished wooden doors, rails, posts, columns, and spindles.
• Mid-1990s-Present: Various asphalt companies have leased the northeast portion of the site since the mid 1990's. Cadman is the current operator, following CEMEX (formerly Rinker Materials and formerly Sterling Asphalt) They have operated this portion of the site as an asphalt batch plant through the present. Operations at Nord Door ended in 2005.

Investigations to date have identified carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxin/furans, petroleum hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soil, groundwater and sediments. Site contamination is likely the result of the former wood door plant and machine shop’s manufacturing and production processes, leaks/spills from above and below ground storage tanks, as well as from the former pole treating yard.

Ecology and Jeld-Wen entered into a formal legal agreement called an Agreed Order for site cleanup on January 2, 2008. The Agreed Order requires Jeld-Wen to develop a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RI/FS) work plan, an RI/FS report, and a cleanup action plan (CAP). The initial RI/FS work plan was approved by Ecology on October 27, 2008. Field activities began in May 2009 with the collection of soil, groundwater, and sediment samples.

Since the initial RI investigation in 2009, multiple rounds of assessments have been completed at the Jeld-Wen site in both the uplands and in-water to fully characterize the site. You can read and download reports describing these assessments by clicking the View Electronic Documents link on the right. Site investigation work was completed in 2020.

The Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study report was finalized in 2021. The Remedial Investigation describes the nature and extent of contamination on the site and includes the information collected in the assessments described above. The Feasibility Study describes options for cleanup, evaluates those options, and presents a preferred alternative.

We expect to prepare a draft Cleanup Action Plan in late 2022. We will share the draft Cleanup Action Plan for public review before it is finalized. Once the Cleanup Action Plan is final, a consent decree between Ecology and the PLPs will govern the Jeld-Wen site cleanup. Site cleanup construction is anticipated for 2023/2024. The future use of the Jeld-Wen property is anticipated to be industrial.

Ecology follows the steps laid out in the Model Toxics Control Act to conduct formal site cleanups. The Jeld-Wen site is at the Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study step in the process.