Cascade Pole Inc McFarland

The Cascade Pole cleanup site is located at 1503 Marine Drive, at the north end of the Port of Olympia peninsula in Olympia. From 1957 to 1986, the Cascade Pole Company operated a wood-treating facility on property leased from the Port of Olympia. Before then, several other wood-treating businesses operated at the site.

Cascade Pole operated a wood treatment plant on the site from the 1930s to the 1980s.  Creosote, a mixture of several different chemicals used to preserve wood, was released to the environment during the plant’s operation. Soil and groundwater were contaminated as a result.
 
The Port has been working on cleaning up the Cascade Pole site for several years. Ecology and Cascade Pole entered into a legal agreement in 1990 to begin cleaning up pollution at the site. Since that time, the Port of Olympia has taken over responsibility for the cleanup.  Ecology and the Port have entered into several legal agreements to continue with cleanup efforts. Ecology is amending the most recent legal agreement (an agreed order) to include new cleanup actions.
 
The Port has taken several interim (partial) cleanup actions to contain much of the contamination.  Ecology continues to work with the Port to make progress on the site cleanup. 

The port conducted an interim (partial cleanup) action to remove and cover contaminated soil in the North Point area during 2010.

In early 2012, the port installed a new system to treat contaminated groundwater from the site. The old system for treating contaminated groundwater began operating in 1993 and needed to be replaced. Long-term monitoring is continuing at the site.