The cleanup of the contaminated Lora Lake Apartments site won’t begin until the spring of 2014, the state Department of Ecology’s site manager told Burien City Council members on July 16.
The site near South 152nd Street and Des Moines Memorial Drive contains ten to 100 times the mandated cleanup level of Dioxin, according to David South.
But although Dioxin lasts a long time, it does not spread as a vapor, South noted. The apartment buildings have been torn down and the site is completely fenced off.
As for particularly dangerous spots that might have to be cleaned up immediately, South noted, “there is nothing screaming hot.”
Lora Lake and a dredge area across Des Moines Drive are also contaminated, South said. However, South added, tests have shown that nearby Miller Creek has not been adversely affected.
Contaminant concentrations in Miller Creek are much less than in the shallow three-acre Lora Lake, South reported.
South said preliminary plans are to excavate parts of the apartment site and cap the contamination. Lora Lake, which is on fenced-off Port property, may be filled.
Construction could take about two years, according to South. Excavation and capping will cost about $7.9 to $8.1 million with a full excavation estimated at $14 million.
“We still have a lot of work to do (before construction begins,)” South said. The draft report has just been completed and Ecology expects to start taking public comments in the mid-part of next year, according to South.
Goals of the project are to protect residents, keep the contaminants contained at the site and make the site suitable for business use, South noted.
Deputy Mayor Rose Clark said the city hopes to break ground next year along the Des Moines Drive corridor for an auto mall. City leaders, with the support of Burien’s new car dealers, want to move the dealerships off First Avenue South and relocate them along the drive. The car dealers say they need room to expand.
The Port of Seattle is also looking at the area for air cargo operations, Port commissioner John Creighton told lawmakers at the July 16 meeting.
The Lora Lake site had been described by City Manager Mike Martin as the “most pad-ready spot” in the city’s Northeast Redevelopment Area.
Beginning in 1946, the site housed an industrial barrel washing operation. From 1950 to 1980, an auto wrecking yard occupied the site.
The contamination most likely stems from these “historical industrial operations,” according to South.
In 1980, a developer bought the property for apartments. In 1982, King County dredged Lora Lake across the street because of a silt problem.
The Port acquired the property in 2004 as part of the third runway protection zone. The apartments stood less than 1,000 feet from the new runway’s center line.
In the spring of 2007, the King County Housing Authority and then-King County Executive Ron Sims, citing an affordable housing crisis, went back on a long-standing agreement to demolish the apartments to make way for commercial development.
But the Burien council and Port commission voted to go forward with demolition. The housing authority countered with a suit to block demolition on the grounds that it had a legal claim to the “surplus” property.
Burien, the Port and the county reached an agreement to sell the property to the housing authority for use as affordable housing. The city received some mitigation benefits in the agreement.
However, the agreement was rescinded in 2008 when environmental testing revealed the site was too contaminated for residential use and the property reverted back to the Port.
