Blakely Harbor Park

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

Blakely Harbor Park (herein the site), generally located at Blakely Avenue & 3-T Road, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110, is one of several sites prioritized for cleanup under the State’s Puget Sound Initiative. The site is generally located at Blakely Avenue and 3-T Road, Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110. Between 1864 and 1922, the site was the location where Port Blakely sawmill was operated. At its peak, the mill produced 100 million board feet of lumber per year. Today, Bainbridge Island Metro Park and Recreation District maintains 40 acres within the former mill property for recreational uses; the remainder of the former mill property is privately owned. 

Wood waste is present in marine sediment as a result of historic mill operations. Soil and sediment sampling found contaminants associated with historic sawmill operations including metals, phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and dioxins/furans above state standards. Contaminant concentrations do not currently pose an imminent threat to human health.

Port Blakely Tree Farms (Port Blakely) has entered into an agreed order with Ecology to investigate soil, groundwater and sediment contamination at the site, and to develop a cleanup action plan.

A remedial investigation (RI) report is currently being developed for the site, and below is a summary of the remedial action work completed to date.

• 1992 Environmental Site Assessment: Port Blakely Tree Farms conducts environmental site assessment independent of Ecology.  The assessment identified potential contamination in the former mill area.

• 2009 Intertidal Sampling and Analysis Report: City of Bainbridge Island conducted environmental site assessment independent of Ecology.  The analysis identified potential sediment contamination at the site.

• 2018 Initial Investigation of Blakely Harbor:  Ecology conducts initial investigation of Blakely harbor Park based on 2008-2009 study, to determine if additional investigation, emergency cleanup or no further action is necessary. 

• 2020 sea floor characterization sampling: Surveys looked at sea floor elevation to build high-resolution bathymetric maps and collected images of the sediment to understand how much wood waste is present.

• 2021 sampling: Further characterized sediment, soil, and groundwater at the site.

• 2022 sampling: Further characterized sediment, soil, and groundwater at the site.

• 2023 sampling: Further characterized groundwater at the site.

• 2024 sampling: Characterized sediment stability at the site. 

Learn more about Washington's Cleanup Process.