BREMERTON: The Port of Bremerton spent about $240,000 decontaminating an industrial building polluted by chrome-plating businesses, staff reported at a Tuesday commission meeting. Port commissioners accepted final contracts with two companies hired to complete the cleanup of the Olympic View Industrial Park building. Three Kings Environmental of Battle Ground billed the port $49,000 for removing toxins from the floors, exterior and office spaces in the building. Rivers Edge Environmental of Maple Valley charged $95,000 to decontaminate the walls, ceiling and mezzanine.
Those costs were added to money the port already spent on testing, initial cleaning and waste disposal. With the final tally for cleanup in hand, port attorneys can seek reimbursement from former tenants. “I feel we should aggressively pursue that,” Commissioner Larry Stokes said Tuesday.
The cleanup left the Imperial Way shop vacant for the past year. Port staff said space is was relisted this fall and has drawn interest from several potential tenants. Metal-plating businesses operated in the building for nearly two decades. Electro Forming Systems rented the space from 1998 to 2013, when it turned its lease over to Art’s Custom Chrome LLC.
After Art’s Custom Chrome moved out in November 2015, the port hired a contractor to test for contamination. Tests revealed arsenic, lead, cyanide, cadmium and other poisonous chemicals used in the metal-plating process had spread throughout the shop and seeped into soil below the building. A painstaking cleanup effort began last summer with environmental firms scouring floors, excavating soil and scrubbing chemical residue from walls and ceilings. Work wrapped up in November and a state industrial hygienist approved the results, port CEO Jim Rothlin said. Rothlin said lease contracts have been updated with stronger rules addressing the use of hazardous chemicals.
Reached for comment in August, Art’s Custom Chrome owner Art Bottger said he was surprised to learn of the extensive cleanup at his former shop. Bottger said he spent $30,000 cleaning the space before moving out. The next Port of Bremerton commission meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 10 at Bremerton National Airport. The commission’s Dec. 27 meeting was canceled.
