Cleanup part of long process to restore long-abused waters of Commencement Bay
By Corvo Rohwer, Puyallup Tribal News
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has begun the undertaking of removing pilings at Dickman Mill Park. Located on Commencement Bay, the derelict structure has been polluting the area for years as removal projects were stunted by a lack of funding, which was finally remedied through legislation in 2023. While much of the structure is gone, what remains are wooden pillars known as pilings. The pilings are harmful to the local ecosystem.
“They’re coated in a wood treatment to prevent decay called creosote, which is a mix of chemicals that’s pretty toxic,” said Washington DNR Communications Consultant Zoe Love. “It harms the water and can leech into the air on hot days, as well.”
Dickman Mill closed in 1977 and burned down in 1979, destroying most of the site – except for the toxic pilings, which have continued to harm salmonids, eelgrass and kelp.
Community leaders and representatives from DNR gathered near the park on Nov. 26 to discuss the cleanup and observe the piling removal. As cranes and boat crews plucked the mill pilings from the shoreline of the Ruston Way waterfront, Puyallup Tribal Council Chairman Bill Sterud shared his perspective on why this project was important to the water and the Tribe.
“It’s exciting for us any time we can take something out of the water that is killing fish. This has been killing fish. … When I see one of these logs being pulled out, the creosote, the pollution, it makes my heart sore. It makes me feel really good. I’m glad that this is taking place,” Sterud said.
Commencement Bay has a history of environmental abuse from industries along the shoreline, with the harmful effects of facilities like the Asarco Smelter still being felt today. Heavy metals like arsenic and lead from the now demolished smelter stack are still being removed from the surrounding soil, while both fish and aquatic plant life suffer from the remnants of toxic slag in the sediment that had been dumped into the water years ago. Cleanup projects such as this one are important to restoring the area, and help take steps to put an end to the pollution of the past near and on the Puyallup Reservation.
“We have lost over 60% of our kelp and eelgrass beds in the entire Puget Sound, and over 90% in the South Sound where we stand today,” said DNR Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz. “We have a huge responsibility of restoring this habitat, our kelp and eelgrass for our salmon not just to survive, but to thrive. It starts by taking action on facilities like this.”
The section of shoreline that once housed the mill has long been an area of public development, with beach restoration projects and the intertidal estuary established in 2001, along with public art elements installed years later in 2021. Metro Parks Tacoma Chief Planning Officer Marty Stump said the piling removal project is another step forward to returning the area and ecosystem back to a healthy place.
“While the shoreline form here in the 19th and 20th centuries conveyed purpose, industry and progress, today, we see our waterfront through the lens of environmental stewardship and restoration, drawing upon the wisdom of Indigenous peoples who have known the Salish Sea as home for millennia,” Stump said.
The removal of the pilings will not only impact aquatic organisms, but migratory birds like the purple martin, as well. In partnership with Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park and Communities for a Healthy Bay, the DNR will work to reinstall bird houses and gourds along the tidal estuary before the martins return next spring.
“I want abundance in wildlife, in salmon habitat. … Cleaning up this mill site is a great first step towards that vision of abundance for all of us,” said Rep. Dan Bronoske.
The DNR estimates the pilings at the Dickman Mill site will take about two weeks to be fully removed, while more removal projects will continue into 2025 as they continue to tackle what they call the “filthy four.” Dickman Mill is just one of the four, with the other three targets being the Triton-America Pier in Anacortes, the former High Tides Seafood Pier in Neah Bay and Ray’s Boathouse Pier in Ballard.
