$7.3 million state funding will go toward cleanup of contaminated Bellingham Bay site

A state low-interest loan is providing $7.3 million to address a toxic waste site on the Bellingham waterfront, the site of a planned city park.

Officials at the state Department of Commerce Public Works Board announced the $7.3 million award for the Cornwall Avenue landfill cleanup earlier this week. It was among $175 million directed toward infrastructure projects statewide.

The site is a former city dump located along the Bellingham waterfront at the south end of Cornwall Avenue. It’s adjacent to the former R.G. Haley plant, another contaminated site, and both are part of the planned Salish Landing park.

RG Haley International treated wood products using creosote and diesel fuel until 1956, and chemicals leached into the ground and Bellingham Bay, where lush eelgrass meadows provide cover for young fish, including salmon, in the shallow water near the shore, according to previous Bellingham Herald reporting.

Before European settlers arrived, the land was an expansive mudflat and the indigenous Lummi and Nooksack people gathered food there and used the site for spiritual ceremonies.

In all, the cleanup is expected to cost $28.3 million.

The Commerce award announced Sept. 9 will support cleaning and capping of contaminated sediment and restore shoreline habitat, according to a statement issued with the grant notice.

Bellingham officials have been planning for more than a decade to develop the former industrial waterfront into a 17-acre park that will extend north from Boulevard Park to the south end of Cornwall Avenue, an area known locally as Glass Beach because of the polished sea glass that washes ashore from the former landfill.

It was recently named Salish Landing , and it will feature parking, restrooms, beach access trails and possibly a food concession and kayak-launching area.

Editor’s note (Sept. 16): This article has been revised to reflect the money is being distributed locally as a low-interest loan.