Event Overview

Superfund Cleanup of Commencement Bay

Superfund Cleanup of Commencement Bay

Citizens for a Healthy Bay, Tacoma, WA

Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB) was founded in 1990 to represent the people of Tacoma in the Superfund cleanup of Commencement Bay, which was then one of the most polluted bodies of water in the entire country.  Over 100 years of discharges and storm water runoff from residential, industrial and commercial properties had made many areas of the bay “dead zones” where almost no life could survive.  An investigation into the causes of the Bay’s pollution found 70 chemicals of concern in the water and nearby land and turned up over 150 parties that were potentially responsible for the pollution.

Citizens for a Healthy Bay community action volunteers took on the mission of representing and giving a voice to the citizens of Tacoma at meetings, forums and planning sessions which brought together local, state and federal government agencies, businesses and industry groups to find the most effective methods for cleaning up the polluted bay. From the start, CHB worked to create a cooperative, non-polarizing and solution-focused approach guided by its team of technical experts from the academic, science and business communities. 

As the cleanup process took place, CHB began compiling a library documenting each step in the process.  This library grew into one of the most comprehensive depositories of Superfund technical information in the nation.  The library is used today to communicate the lessons of Commencement Bay’s cleanup process to the public and to educators and scientists confronted with similar problems in other cities.  

Citizens for a Healthy Bay then took on the mission of leading in the restoration of contaminated parcels of land along both sides of the Bay.  CHB’s Adopt-A-Wildlife-Area (AAWA) program was established as the organizational hub for a diverse band of volunteers dedicated to enhancing the expanding corridor of restored sites that provide valuable wildlife habitat but are too small to be self-sustaining.  CHB and its volunteers remove all kinds of invasive weeds, plant native trees and shrubs, clean up litter and debris and monitor the ongoing recovery and health of the land.  

Along with its cleanup and restoration activities, CHB recognized the need to represent and involve the people of Tacoma in protecting the bay and our surrounding waters and habitat from further pollution.  The Bay Patrol program was established and CHB staff began patrolling the bay and the south Puget Sound area investigating pollution hotline reports and working with the City, the State and the Coast Guard to enforce pollution control laws.  CHB also started a highly popular Clean Boating program to educate boaters and marina operators about the best methods to avoid polluting the water. 

Citizens for a Healthy Bay has grown to become one of the most effective and respected nonprofit environmental groups in the Puget Sound region. CHB’s mission has always remained the same, though: to represent and engage citizens in cleaning up, restoring and protecting Commencement Bay, surrounding waters and our natural habitat.        

Aquafina was very pleased to support CHB in their Earth Day activities this year with water and recycling kits for volunteers.

According to Jeanine Riss, Restoration Program Mgr & Volunteer Coordinator for CHB, “our Earth Day event was such a success.  Altogether, there were 135 people in attendance (119 volunteers, 6 staff, 6 EarthCorps crew members and 5 WCC crew members). This year, we focused on education with informative site tours and educational displays in the importance of habitat restoration, estuaries and the problems with invasive species.  

There was a children's coloring station where they could learn about storm water runoff and other forms of water pollution and prevention.  There were also special guest from REI and the City of Tacoma EnviroChallenger program who brought material on protecting salmon.  We also had a work party where volunteers helped remove 500 pounds of old goose exclusion fencing/rebar material and approx. 3 cubic yards of invasive plant material.  They also assisted in planting 250 salt tolerant plants”.  

Related links

http://www.healthybay.org