MCNEIL ISLAND, WA (AP) — Washington is spending $500,000 to remove 100-year-old debris from McNeil Island in south Puget Sound.

The Department of Natural Resources is part of a state coalition that’s removed more than 1,000 tons of concrete, creosote-soaked pilings, scrap metal, and discarded bricks from McNeil Island’s shoreline, which should result in improved conditions for aquatic wildlife.

McNeil Island in Pierce County once had a school, a prison, a lumber mill and homes.

Now the only residents on the six-square-mile island are the 200 sex offenders living in a special state facility.