Tub Lake Apparently Unhurt By Toxics

SEATAC

Contamination found in the Tub Lake-Sunset Park area, part of the proposed $8.5 million North SeaTac Park, apparently hasn't damaged the lake.

Judy Aitken of the state Department of Ecology said unknown quantities of PCBs, cadmium, zinc, lead and other contaminants, including gasoline and diesel fuel, were found in a 100-foot-long drainage ditch between the lake and King County's road-maintenance shops.

The DOE has given the regional and city park site a risk rating of 2, with 5 being the least threatening. But city officials said the rating is misleading and might later be changed to a 3.

"It isn't a high priority from the standpoint of the state because they don't consider it a high risk," said Michael Knapp, SeaTac's planning and community-development director.

Aitken said some of the contaminated soil will have to be removed, but that water at Tub Lake, a bog and marshland that receives surface runoff from the ditch, seems to be fine. The tiny fish-bearing lake is closed to the public for safety reasons unrelated to the contamination, but the city has applied for a state grant to build a boardwalk across it.

The DOE site-hazard assessment said runoff flows into the ditch from the county road-maintenance facility and a county parks and recreation office.

Homes within the site boundaries were purchased by the Port of Seattle and removed under the Airport Relocation Program. Underground heating-oil tanks remain at some of the old home sites on the property.

During World War II, the site was used as a dumping area for waste oil from shipbuilding. Bilge oil, oily waste cargo and old cars also were dumped at the site, the DOE report said.

Although Aitken said the peat bog appears to have done an excellent job of filtering out pollutants before they drain into the Tub Lake, the report said "old cars were observed being dumped into the Tub Lake in the '40s and '50s."

Aitken briefed county, port and city officials on the contamination after the DOE issued its hazard assessment this month. The three agencies are jointly developing the 220-acre park east of Des Moines Memorial Drive.

Currently under construction at North SeaTac Park is a 21,000-square-foot community center. Before the foundation could be built, two underground oil-storage tanks had to be dug up.