American Plating

The American Plating site is located at 2110 East D Street in Tacoma. The 1.5 acre site sits on the eastern bank of the Thea Foss Waterway, near its head. American Plating was an electroplating facility until 1986, when the company filed for bankruptcy. Past operations and spills contaminated the site with heavy metals such as cadmium, copper, lead, and nickel. There is also contamination from cyanide and vinyl chloride.

The Foss Waterway Development Authority (FWDA) now owns the site and is responsible for finishing the cleanup. 

In 2003, Ecology performed interim cleanup actions (photos). This included:

• Removing site buildings.
• Disposing of 18,000 gallons of water found in a concrete sump.
• Removing the 25,000 gallon concrete sump.

In 2012, FWDA cleaned up the site. This included:

• Disposing of 175 tons of trash, metal waste and asphalt.
• Removing 1,060 tons of contaminated soil from the site.
• Capping exposed areas with clean soil and caps.
• Maintenance of a three foot wide native habitat restoration area along the western boundary.

FWDA recorded an environmental covenant for the site in 2014. This prohibits activities that could result in the release of the contaminants that remain at the site. The EC states:

• Property owner must preserve caps.
• Property owner needs to maintain groundwater monitoring wells.
• Groundwater should not be used from the site.

Ecology held a public comment period from February 19 – March 20, 2015, for taking American Plating off the Contaminated Sites List. We received no comments.

After the comment period, we finalized the No Further Action letter and removed American Plating from the Contaminated Sites List.