318 State Ave NE Olympia

Cleanup is complete for residential use at part of the site. The site was sub-divided and we determined that no further cleanup action was required for the new parcel.

The City of Olympia and the Low Income Housing Institute developed the Billy Frank Jr. Place for affordable housing on the new parcel. The city continues to cleanup contamination at the remaining portion of the site with assistance from the Voluntary Cleanup Program.

The Billy Frank Jr. Place offers affordable housing to disabled individuals and unhoused veterans and youth. It is conveniently located near the Olympia Transit Center, parks, shopping, and schools. The project is named for Billy Frank, Jr. who was a Nisqually tribal member and tireless advocate for Indian treaty rights and environmental stewardship. Among his many awards, in 2015 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Billy Frank Jr. Place was made possible thanks to public funding from our Brownfields Program and several public and private grants and loans.

A focus sheet briefly summarizes information about the site and the development of affordable housing at the Billy Frank Jr. Place.

The site is located at 318 State Street NE in Olympia. The site has been used since the 1890s. It has been developed for several uses, including use as a foundry and machine shop, automotive repair facility, and material testing laboratory. Former activity at the site likely leaked hazardous chemicals into the soil and groundwater.

Contaminants in soil:

• Metals: arsenic and lead.
• Tetrachloroethene (PCE) and its break-down products: trichloroethene (TCE), dichloroethylene (DCE), and vinyl chloride.
• Carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (cPAHs)

Contaminants in groundwater:

• Arsenic.
• Tetrachloroethene (PCE) and its break-down products.

In 2009, contaminated soil was excavated and removed from the site. Soil samples of the area following excavation confirmed that the contamination was removed. Ecology deemed that the soil was safe for residential use.

The area of contaminated groundwater was limited.  By 2016, five of the site’s monitoring wells were consistently meeting state groundwater standards. To allow for redevelopment to progress, the property was sub-divided, and we issued a No Further Action determination for the Billy Frank Jr. Place property.

An environmental covenant was recorded on the Billy Frank Jr. Place property in 2016. This environmental covenant prohibits any activity that would impact the cleanup without prior approval by Ecology. We review conditions at the site every five years to ensure conditions at the site protect human health and the environment. The city continues to cleanup and monitor the groundwater at the remaining part of the site.

This site is in our Voluntary Cleanup Program, which provides technical help to owners of contaminated sites.

Voluntary Cleanup Program customers pay fees to cover our costs for technical help and reviewing cleanup reports. Sites in this program must meet the same cleanup standards as sites Ecology manages under legal orders.