A master plan for the port peninsula is moving forward. On Monday, July 22, the commission authorized Executive Director Alex Smith to sign an amendment to the contract of Dalton, Olmsted & Fuglevand Inc., whose subcontractors will work on the master plan.
Dalton, Olmsted and Fuglevand were hired in June 2022 to work on the remediation of Budd Inlet. The amendment increases the maximum contract value from $6,591,936 to $11,831,936 and extends the agreement until the end of 2026.
The additional $5.24 million added to the contract will primarily be used to continue the Budd Inlet remediation research, with $4 million set aside for this part of the project. The remainder will be used to develop the master plan for the port peninsula.
Grants from the Washington Departments of Ecology and Commerce will fund around half of the remediation project's total costs.
A master plan for the port peninsula is being included in the remediation of Budd Inlet as they both impact each other. The cost and impact of the remediation will impact port operations the same way port operations impact how the remediation will be performed, as explained by Rob Webb of Dalton, Olmsted & Fuglevand during a briefing on July 8.
Shawn Gilbertson, the port’s director of environmental planning, added that doing both together strengthens the port’s position in terms of getting funded as they will have more information to justify their funding requests.
Besides the remediation of Budd Inlet, Camille St. Onge, the port’s director of strategic initiatives, said the master plan will also consider how the sediments from Budd Inlet will be reused, adaptation plans for seal level rise, and the impact of the restoration of Deschutes Estuary.
The master plan will also include a market and economic impact analysis and integrate plans for the marine terminal, open spaces, and parks.
Cost projections, potential funding sources, and branding will also be part of the master plan process.
During the July 8 briefing, Commissioner Jasmine Vasavada questioned why the contract for the master plan was being awarded to Dalton, Olmsted & Fuglevand instead of opening the contract to another firm. Webb admitted they were not master planners, but their subcontractors had already done planning work for the port.
The firm has 11 subcontractors for the work. The subcontractors for the master plan component include BST Associate, Heartland, JA Brennan Associates, Moffatt & Nichol, Maul Foster Alongi, and Thomas Architecture Studios.
Smith had told Vasavada that conducting individual requests for proposals (RFP) for the same number of subcontractors would take months and that the proposed amendment to the contract would allow them to begin the work for the master plan immediately.
As for the remediation of Budd Inlet, Gilbertson said the contract amendment would allow Dalton, Olmsted & Fuglevand to continue the analysis of Budd Inlet, specifically on the west bay.
Sampling activities were conducted on the east bay in January, so the same will be done on the west bay. The data to be collected will help the firm develop a work plan for the actual remediation of Budd Inlet.
Port staff have been emphasizing that the clean-up will be science-based. This means that the development of the work plan will continue to be a reiterative process. Data collected from sampling activities will identify data gaps, which will then inform the port of other data collection activities they need before they finalize a work plan for the clean-up.
Additional funding would need to be acquired to perform the actual clean-up of the west bay.
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Boatyarddog
They THINK they are going to "re-use" sediment from the Bay.
It cannot be Polluted then Buried and built upon.
Future Generations would suffer the tesults.
Wednesday, July 24 Report this
HarryBranch
If the "Port Peninsula Cleanup" were to be "science based" there would be some attempt to determine sources and pathways of dioxin contamination entering Budd Inlet. There would be among other things core samples taken in areas of historic industrial activities and fill, on land. The current plan to dredge the bay and mix contaminated sediments with cement and pour the resulting concoction over the peninsula will likely make a real cleanup and restoration impossible.
Thursday, July 25 Report this
Boatyarddog
How could Contaminated Spoils from the dredging be incorperated into cement.
Not only is this Contaminated but seems not usable as building material. Harry Branch, is the idea to bury the comtaminates in a concrete coffer and bury that as in the past? That has been done, with many questions about its longevity and effectiveness. Could the idea be approved by DOE? To mix contaminated spoils, and spread them over, or even under an area they would build upon. Do you know how they"capped" the Westbay Yards area?
Friday, July 26 Report this
DanaMadsen
Here's another thought about this whole process. According to the article, we (our representatives) have hired a consultant who is not qualified to do the work, who has in turn hired 11 subcontractors to do the actual work. Our local politicians don't seem to be able to make any serious decisions about anything without hiring consultants to give them cover. I have this vision of a huge sow with 11 piglets latched onto the teats all sucking for all they're worth as long as the fools will keep on paying.
Sunday, July 28 Report this