PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has finished cleaning up an old dump site on land slated for the future Dungeness off-channel reservoir, removing decades-old vehicle debris and contaminated soil from a small portion of the property.
Public Works Projects Coordinator Rhiana Barkie told commissioners the work focused on a narrow area on the south end of the site where people discarded cars and garbage between the 1920s and 1950s. Much of it was still buried under blackberry thickets when the county acquired the land from the Department of Natural Resources.
Environmental testing showed only minor contamination — one groundwater sample just above state petroleum standards and one soil sample with elevated lead — but the site was added to the state toxics list, prompting the county to act for public safety.
“More importantly, it was a public safety concern. You had debris on the site, and this is county-owned land where people roam all the time. I learned during the cleanup that the area is full of blackberries, and a lot of folks go berry picking back there. The bottom line is, if the soil was still contaminated with lead, there was always the potential for someone to accidentally ingest it—especially people picking berries,” said Barkie
Crews removed more than 30 tons of debris and contaminated soil, then backfilled and hydroseeded the slope. The cleanup came in about $40,000 under budget, with most costs covered by grants. The county contributed about $12,000 for hazardous-waste disposal.
Next steps could include three years of groundwater monitoring to formally remove the site from the state’s toxics list. That work is estimated at roughly $180,000, though budget decisions are still ahead. Commissioners will get a full update on the broader off-channel reservoir project next week.