Past Pollution to Future Park

Over a century after the Cornwall Avenue Landfill was opened, a site cleanup has been initiated. This will help the City of Bellingham step away from the pollution from its industrial past and look towards a brighter future.

White tarps stick out against the city backdrop as seen across Bellingham Bay. // Matthew Price

June 6, 2023

Story By Peik Spencer

What was once Cornwall Avenue Landfill is now an empty lot with two mysterious white mounds. This area is gated off to the public because of the toxic materials that remain from the site’s time as a landfill for the city. Still filled with harmful materials, plans are set to make it safe so the public can recreate on the site without worry. 

The City of Bellingham is cleaning the slate by undergoing an ambitious project to restore areas that were contaminated by previous generations.

The site is in the process of becoming a park and is faced with many challenges. The challenges come from materials that remain from the site’s time as a sawmill and a landfill.

These materials include heavy metals and PCBs. Both pose serious health risks for humans. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are toxic materials that are usually left over from industrial sites. They have been shown to cause lesions on the skin, disrupt the body’s hormonal system, and at worst can cause death after prolonged exposure according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Supporters have various motives for the bay-wide cleanup project which help enforce the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), known as Washington State’s environmental cleanup law. 

For many Bellingham residents, walking or biking along the beautiful and conveniently located South Bay Trail is a common pastime. Anyone would have a hard time missing the two massive stark white mounds next to the trail. This is the Cornwall site.

Map by Sof Dubois

What lies beneath the colossal tarps is soil ready for use when the park is further along in development. That soil will be used to cover up the contaminated soil underneath a multilayered cap. However, the cap layer of soil came from an unexpected place. 

“We were dredging a portion of our Squalicum Marina and that generates a bunch of fine grain silty and clay material,” said Brian Gouran, director of environmental and planning services at the Port of Bellingham. “We already know we need that on the landfill, [so we said] let's go ahead and move it over there.”

It is important to have a cap that can protect contaminants from people and rain. With the fine, silty soil that is exactly what they hope to get. 

“It saves the Port some money on our dredging project, and it saved us resources from having to import other material to the landfill,” Gouran said.

Ruth Sofield, an environmental toxicology professor at Western Washington University, said that there are multiple factors that make for a good cleanup of contaminated materials. 

“I think the best cleanup makes sure that it's meeting all the objectives, considers the specific site, considers the chemicals and does it quickly too,” Sofield said.

She said that an easily overlooked factor is time because it plays an important role in how contaminants can infiltrate throughout a site. If left for longer, contaminants are able to spread more thoroughly.

The project is taking longer because each site scheduled for cleanup along Bellingham Bay has a different land use.

 “They’re really all unique, one-off types of projects, so they all have their own story,” Gouran said. “Each one of these has a different land use driver.” 

While having a park on the water would boost the enjoyment of everyday people, there are some concerns that goals of the community are being overlooked. 

“I want to see these sites used in service of broader community goals,” said Zander Albertson, an environmental studies instructor at Western Washington University. “Great, we got a park here but let’s also make sure we’re doing other things with other sites.” 

There are over 800 unhoused people in Bellingham, according to the Whatcom County Coalition to End Homelessness as of 2022. This number is likely to increase as Bellingham’s population increases in size, which it did in 2022 by 4.5% as reported by Western, a growth rate which was only topped by Seattle.

“Who actually gets to use the space?” Albertson said. “Oftentimes, contaminated sites, while they’re contaminated, are seen as worthless and can be related to other so-called ‘social ills’.” 

Sites that are contaminated or abandoned are called “brownfields” by Washington State’s Department of Ecology. The redevelopment of these sites is crucial when it comes to getting the most out of land that would otherwise be left to deteriorate.

Behind a chain link fence, waterproof tarps cover the sediment that will be used in the capping process at the Cornwall site. // Matthew Price

Low-income individuals are disproportionately located near hazardous sites. This raises worries about building low-income housing at the Cornwall site.

“It seems like an environmental justice issue when you’re putting people who are underprivileged on the contaminated sites,” Sofield said.

The plan would also help to improve the local ecological needs of the area by providing habitats to native species.

“The cleanup will include habitat improvement elements like placing specific materials at certain slopes and elevations, and planting eelgrass,” said Lucy McInerney, the environmental engineer for the project from the Washington State Department of Ecology. “[These things] will provide clean shallow areas for juvenile salmon rearing and [fish who salmon eat] spawning.”

Albertson said that while the site could be used for something better, it wouldn’t hurt to serve one part of the community. It shouldn’t be a zero-sum game if the best solution is impossible. A park is better than no action taken and an empty lot remaining at the site.  

There are about seven new chemicals introduced into commerce every day, according to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

“Things like UV light or microorganisms can change a chemical into multiple chemicals, and those chemicals can also be harmful,” Sofield said. “Some of the chemicals have global transport so they become a problem for all of us.”

The chemicals left behind burden the local residents because they can remain for years. 

“[We want to] do this in the most permanent, protective way that we can,” said Ian Fawley, outreach specialist at Ecology. “If you think about the bay as a slice of the pie, every time that you clean up one slice of that pie, each of the cleanup sites adds to a cleaner environment as a whole.”

While the past is beginning to be cleaned, the question remains, “Are we getting better at stopping these pollutants from getting into the environment in the first place?”

According to Sofield the answer to that question is, “A resounding no.”

Peik Spencer is a junior environmental science student at Western who enjoys learning about the natural world and how humans are a part of it.

Matthew Price is an environmental studies student whose photography examines the interconnected relationships of nature and engineering.