Sea K Fish Formal Cleanup Process Documents

Dear Cris Matthews,

Thank you for taking the time to consider our comment on the Agreed Order and Public Participation Plan for the Sea K Fish Site.

RE Sources is a non-profit organization located in northwest Washington and founded in 1982. We work to...↓ protect the health of northwest Washington's people and ecosystems through the application of science, education, advocacy, and action. Our priority programs include Protecting the Salish Sea, Freshwater Restoration, Climate Action, and Fighting Pollution–all critical issues affecting our region. Our North Sound Baykeeper is also a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance, with over 300 organizations in 34 countries around the world that promote fishable, swimmable, drinkable water. RE Sources has thousands of supporters in Whatcom, Skagit, and San Juan counties, and we submit these comments on their behalf.

We appreciate this opportunity to comment on this Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) cleanup site. As we observed from a site visit in September 2020, this site certainly needs to be addressed in a timely manner and we appreciate your efforts to keep this site moving along quickly while following due process. We generally support a full removal cleanup if that's what the Remedial Investigation supports and encourage on-going monitoring of the site to ensure that the oil leak is kept under control in the meantime.

Having a Public Participation Plan in place early in the process is always important as public participation is a key component of the MTCA process. We encourage Ecology to post public meeting materials online as soon as possible, so that more public can see these materials even if they are unable to attend any scheduled public meetings. We also feel it is important to ensure that the employees on the impacted site(s) are properly informed. They are entitled to know what contaminants and associated hazards are present in their work area. During a previous MTCA site tour in the area we found out that employees were not aware of the public comment period or cleanup plans. Signage around the area could help inform more of the public, including employees at the site. Properly informed employees might also be another set of eyes at the site to notify the Port of Bellingham and/or Ecology whenever the boom is not containing the oil seepage.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Eleanor Hines, Lead Scientist/North Sound Baykeeper

Kirsten McDade,Pollution Prevention Specialist

RE Sources

My name is Stacy Martin and I am Business Manager-Secretary-Treasurer of LiUNA Local 292 and our jurisdiction covers Snohomish, Skagit, Island, Whatcom and San Juan Counties. We have members that live in Whatcom County both Journeyperson and Apprent...↓ices. I'm writing today to ask the department to schedule a public meeting on the Sea K clean up project, and to add Apprenticeship requirements to the solicitation of bids for the this, and these kind of projects.

Thank you for your time.

Regarding the oil contamination cleanup at the Port of Bellingham, I thought I would remind you of the ADsorb-it Products we manufacture locally for the truly effective removal of oils and particulates from water. The Washington State Department of ...↓Ecology has been using our ADsorb-it technology / products for several years and they could be effectively applied on this Port of Bellingham project. There is more product information available on our recently updated website at www.eco-tec-inc.com. Please contact me directly if any additional information is needed.

Good Afternoon,

My name is Trevor Smith, I'm the Political Director for Laborers Local 292,We represent 1400 working men and woman.

We would like to respectfully request a Community Engagement meeting, Where we hope to hear more about the project, and ...↓discuss including Apprenticeship Utilization language in these kinds of Public Projects.