United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance
(2201 A)
520F95006
Summer 1996
Superfund At Work
Hazardous Waste Cleanup Efforts Nationwide
Success in Brief
From Coal to Natural Gas:
Fueling the Demand for Lights
As history has shown, most battles are fought over land or
energy. The settlement of our western states proceeded over
the course of about 150 years, and that expansion embodied
the greed for both. Coal was one of the first energy sources
and remains today a versatile natural fuel with manifold util-
ity. Gas from coal lit our city streets in the 1800s and provided
the energy for industrial manufacturers to transform a steady
stream of raw materials into useful products.
The vast frontier of the west seemed endless, but the towns
filled up with homesteaders who demanded modern conve-
niences and economic prosperity. One of the last U.S. cities to
use coal gas for lighting was Tacoma, Washington, caught in
the fray between a rapidly growing population and new indus-
tries rushing to extract the bountiful natural resources of the
land. The city used the old
technology of manufacturing
gas, a dirty process that
discarded large volumes of
tarry wastes and heavy
metals. With the advent of
natural gas, the municipal
utility abandoned the crude
gasification process, along
with 30 acres of hazardous
wastes.
Almost 20 years later, a
The first coal gas street lamps had
open-flame burners.
salvage company would
further contaminate the land
and ground water with a
myriad of scrap metals and
toxic chemicals. The U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency then stepped in to
clean up the site and restore
the burdened wetlands. Fair
and wide-ranging enforce-
ment actions brought a quick
resolution to this small but
significant site.
Tacoma Tar Pits
Site Profile
Site Description: Former coal
gasification plant and current metal
recycling facility
Site Size: 30 acres
Primary Contaminants: Heavy
metals, polychlorinated biphenyls,
benzene, and polynuclear aromatic
hydrocarbons
Potential Range of Health Effects:
Central nervous system and cardio-
vascular disorders; increased risk of
cancer
Nearby Population: 162,000
people
Ecological Effects: Ecosystem
degradation in the Puyallup River
and Wheeler-Osgood Waterway
Year Listed on NPL: 1983
EPA Region: 10
State: Washington
Congressional District: 6
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Superfund At Work • Tacoma Tar Pits, Tacoma, WA • Summer 1996
The Tacoma Tar Pits are
part of the much larger Com-
mencement Bay, Near shore/
Tideflats Superfund site. This
30-acre section is located
between the Puyallup River
and the Wheeler-Osgood
Waterway on the outskirts of
Tacoma, Washington. The
river and waterway are im-
portant sources of fish and
shellfish; a variety of adjacent
industries depend on surface
and ground water.
From 1924 until 1956, a
predecessor company of what
is now Washington Natural
Gas operated a coal gasifica-
tion plant at the site to pro-
vide power for city lights.
Discarded coal tar liquors,
coal ash, and coal tar wastes
contained a variety of heavy
metals including arsenic,
A Site Snapshot
mercury, and lead, as well as
volatile
organic
compounds
such as
benzene,
toluene, and
polynuclear
aromatic
hydrocar-
bons (PAHs).
Joseph Simon
and Sons, the current
tenant, began a metal recycling
operation at the site in 1967,
accepting scrap metals and
shredded automobiles. Dis-
carded electrical transformers
and capacitors from local utili-
ties contained polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) that seeped
into soil and surface water.
PAHs, benzene, and lead also
Tacoma Tar Pits
Tacoma, Washington
Scrap and other materials
that couldn't be recycled
(auto fluff) were
used to fill holes
and ditches on the
property and on
surrounding land
owned by two
railroads and a food
products company.
This practice contin-
ued through the
1980s. By then, the
list of site contaminants had
been associated with central
nervous system and cardiovas-
cular disorders. PCBs are
suspected carcinogens and
their manufacture, distribution,
and use have been banned
since 1974. Ecological effects
include estrogenic and repro-
ductive consequences that may
leached into area ground water. never be fully documented.
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Superfund At Work • Tacoma Tar Pits, Tacoma, WA • Summer 1996
C0al Gasification Lights Up Tacoma at Turn of ti
The east coast cities of the
early 1800s were ports of trade
where new world riches flowed
into merchant ships from half
way around the world. Com-
merce emanated from the wharf
but ended at sunset, the bus-
tling city streets dark with
shadows, the crooked lanes lit
poorly by kerosene lanterns. In
1817, Baltimore, Maryland was
the first to use gas distilled
from coal to light city streets.
The National Road opened to
the public in 1818, the greatest
wagon trail of the day and the
first to connect the east to the
newly settled Ohio River Val-
ley. As pioneers settled the
west, various innovations and
technologies followed. More
than 125 years would go by
before municipal utilities on the
west coast switched from coal
to natural gas and then to
electricity for lighting.
In the gasification process,
bituminous coal is prepared by
crushing and drying, pretreated
to prevent caking, and then
gasified with a mixture of air or
oxygen and steam. By-products
are coal tar and coke, which
have useful purposes if prop-
erly handled. The process also
produces some benzene, tolu-
ene, and xylene, today regu-
lated as hazardous substances.
The Seattle Gas Light Com-
pany was still using the gasifi-
cation process when five public
streets were first lit on New
Year's Eve in 1873. Gas was
stored in wooden containers
and piped through the city in
bored-out fir logs. Despite the
crude distribution to homes and
businesses, the plant was the
first of its kind on Puget Sound.
The City of Tacoma finally
received gas lights in the late
1880s. Not until the 1890s were
the first gas ranges introduced
to relieve the drudgery of cook-
ing. With the modernization of
early 20th century homes,
Mountain States Power Com-
pany opened the gasification
plant in 1924, fueling the area's
burgeoning industries in smelt-
ing and forest products. Wash-
ington Gas and Electric Com-
pany of Tacoma purchased the
plant in 1928.
Continued on page 4
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Superfund At Work • Tacoma Tar Pits, Tacoma, WA • Summer 1996
Century
View of the carborated water gas plant showing the gas holder on the right and relief tank on the left, circa 1945.
Continued from page 3
Operations ceased in 1956
with the introduction of the
cleaner, more potent natural
gas that replaced the manufac-
tured variety. Washington
Natural Gas formed as a
merger between the Seattle
and Tacoma utilities to distrib-
ute the new fuel through major
pipelines that linked Puget
Sound with Canada. But the
site of the old gasification plant
remained heavily laden with
tar pitch residuals, PCBs, and
trace metals widely distributed
over the property. Almost a
decade would pass while
contaminants silently perco-
lated into the ground water
from areas of saturation. When
the plant was finally demol-
ished in 1965, tanks and pipe-
lines still contained sizable
quantities of hazardous wastes.
Then in 1967, Joseph Simon
and Sons began metals recovery
at the site to recycle scrap met-
als from area businesses, includ-
ing shredded automobiles.
Handling and storage practices
were environmentally irrespon-
sible, but the operators were
likely not fully cognizant of the
toxicity associated with used
transformers, for example, that
came loaded with PCBs. Thus
the site became increasingly
burdened with heavy metals
and lead, the PCBs leaching
into soil and ground water.
In addition to the metals
work, the Simons also used
auto fluff and other materials
that couldn't be recycled to fill
ditches and holes on their own
and adjacent property owned
by Burlington Northern Rail-
road, Union Pacific Railroad,
and the Hygrade Food Products
Company. That off-site con-
tamination continued through
the 1980s.
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Superfund At Work • Tacoma Tar Pits, Tacoma, WA • Summer 1996
Environmental Officials Seek
Federal Assistance
Local authorities became
suspicious when someone
noticed that pockets of tar
surfaced and boiled in the heat
during the summer. In April
1981, the Washington State
Department of Ecology (Eco-
logy) inspected and sampled
from the old tar pits. The verti-
cal extent of relatively "pure"
tar was estimated on the order
of several feet; soil investiga-
tions later found even greater
depths. State officials promptly
requested assistance from the
regional EPA in Seattle.
Four months earlier, Con-
gress had enacted the Compre-
hensive Environmental Re-
sponse, Compensation, and
Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA).
This law established a national
program to clean up the com-
plex problems associated with
improper hazardous waste
disposal. Derived from excise
taxes on chemical feedstocks
and petroleum products, no
taxpayer dollars are in the
"Superfund".
In October 1981, EPA pro-
posed to add Tacoma Tar Pits
(as part of the Commencement
Bay, Nearshore/Tideflats site)
to the National Priorities List
(NPL), a roster of hazardous
waste sites requiring compre-
hensive cleanup. Following
official listing in 1983, EPA and
Ecology identified the major
responsible parties, and in 1984
this group agreed to study the
extent of site contamination and
to propose a cleanup plan.
Three years of in-depth
studies confirmed varying
concentrations of benzene,
PAHs, lead, and PCBs in soil
Loading soil for a trial mix during treatability studies.
and surface water. Three aqui-
fers also were polluted, but the
extent of the contamination was
not determined at that time.
Enforcement Provisions
Take Over
Initial attempts to negotiate a
settlement with the major waste
contributors ended in a stale-
mate, prompting EPA to issue
an administrative order for site
cleanup. Noncompliance with
the order resulted in a penalty
of $600,000, which the Simons
and Washington Natural Gas
paid. The two railroads, the
Simons, and a number of minor
waste contributors agreed to
fund a portion of the work with
Washington Natural Gas con-
ducting the bulk of activities.
In 1987, EPA selected a rem-
edy whereby contaminated soil
would be excavated, treated,
and replaced with clean fill. But
in the winter of 1989, design
engineers discovered consider-
ably more tainted soil than
originally estimated. Treatabil-
ity studies were completed and
construction began in 1992.
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Superfund At Work • Tacoma Tar Pits, Tacoma, WA • Summer 1996
Continued from page 5
Since then, more than 200,000
cubic yards of soil, tar, and auto
fluff have been stabilized with a
polymer/cement mixture. A
geotextile cap made of high-
density polyethylene and native
grasses cover a mound of con-
fined wastes 40 feet high. All
excavated areas have been
backfilled with clean soil.
A new drainage system
shunts precipitation away from
the geotextile cover with con-
tinuous ground water monitor-
ing ongoing. EPA included
provisions in the settlement
documents that may require
ground water pump-and-treat
should any samples dictate
future activity. A comprehen-
sive strategy for overall surface
and ground water will be en-
compassed in the remedy se-
lected for the Commencement
Bay, Nearshore/Tideflats site.
The scrap metal dealer contin-
ues using more than half the
original site and has an opera-
tional surface water treatment
plant that is inspected at regular
intervals.
Small Waste Contributors
Cash Out
To date, EPA has negotiated
separate settlements with 17 de
minimis parties who contributed
small amounts of waste to the
site. Successful negotiations
returned prior investigation and
oversight costs to EPA and have
helped fund the $42 million
cleanup.
Recycled/Recyclable
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