SEATTLE — A nonprofit trust that manages the lands where a century-old wood-treatment operation contaminated Elliott Bay claims the state, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and others have not paid a fair share of the cleanup costs, the Seattle Times reported.
The Puget Sound Resources Environmental Trust, created in 1994 by a federal court order to liquidate the assets of the Wycoff Co.’s old creosote facility near West Seattle, is seeking $40 million in a lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court. It names the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the railroad and three companies.
From 1912 to 1994, wood preservatives and chemicals from the creosote facility polluted lands and intertidal areas of the bay — now a Superfund site. The railroad owned part of the site for 50 years. The DNR leased aquatic lands to polluting companies, the suit alleges.
The trust has begun selling off parcels of the land and giving the money to the EPA to pay for cleanup that includes restoration of salmon habitat and shellfish beds.