One Child Dead, Second Critically Injured after Long-time Neglect
Source Press Release: United States Attorney Jenny A. Durkan Western District of Washington, August 4, 2014
An enrolled member of the Tulalip Tribes was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 15 years in prison and five years of supervised release for second degree murder and criminal mistreatment in the death of one daughter and the neglect of the second, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. CHRISTINA D. CARLSON, 38, was indicted by the grand jury last May and pleaded guilty in April 2014, following the October, 2012 death of her 19-month-old daughter and the neglect of her 33-month-old daughter. At sentencing U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said, “The details of the murder and mistreatment are nauseating…. She knew she needed to care for her children and she chose not to.”
CARLSON has been in federal custody at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac, Washington, since January 11, 2013. The criminal complaint and plea agreement describe how on October 8, 2012, emergency crews were called to an address on Marine Drive NE on the Tulalip Tribal Reservation where CARLSON was performing CPR on her 19-month-old daughter who was unresponsive on a blanket on the ground. The child was unconscious, not breathing and covered in urine and feces. A second child, a 33-month old girl, was found strapped in her car seat in a nearby vehicle. The child was pale, unresponsive and covered in urine and feces. The girl was transported to the hospital and later recovered. The 19-month old child died and the Snohomish County Medical examiner classified the manner of death as homicide by parental neglect. According to the report the child was malnourished and dehydrated, weighing only 19 pounds. The child’s skin in the diaper area was excoriated and infested with maggots. Her hair was infested with lice.
The investigation revealed that CARLSON had been living in the car with the girls on the property since mid-September. On October 8, 2012 CARLSON had left the girls in the car while she went to use a phone at the residence on the property. CARLSON admits in her plea agreement that she was away from the car for several hours, attempting to obtain drugs for her personal use. About 20 minutes after the neighbors told her to go back to the car and her children, CARLSON returned asking them to call 9-1-1 because the youngest child was unresponsive.
The case was investigated by the Tulalip Tribal Police and the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney J. Tate London.
The governors of California, Oregon and Washington sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewel on Thursday to stress that they don’t want the possibility of drilling off of the West Coast.
The Interior Department is developing an updated plan for its Outer Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, and the governors formally stated their opposition to the inclusion of any oil or gas lease sales off the coast as part of any new plan.
Govs. Jay Inslee, of Washington, Jerry Brown, of California, and John Kitzhaber, of Oregon, wrote that their three states “represent the fifth-largest economy in the world” and their ocean-dependent industries contribute billions of dollars to the region each year.
“While new technology reduces the risk of a catastrophic event such as the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, a sizeable spill anywhere along our shared coast would have a devastating impact on our population, recreation, natural resources, and our ocean and coastal dependent economies,” they wrote.
The governors, all Democrats, also stressed a commitment to develop a strategy to combat climate change.
“Oil and gas leasing may be appropriate for regions where there is state support for such development and the impacts can be mitigated,” they wrote. “However, along the West Coast, our states stand ready to work with the Obama Administration to help craft a comprehensive and science-based national energy policy that aligns with the actions we are taking to invest in energy efficiency, Oil and Gas Leasing Program alternative renewable energy sources, and pricing carbon.”
Inslee spokesman David Postman said that while there aren’t any current plans for West Coast leases, the governors want to ensure there aren’t any in the new plan.
Foraged vegetables are always more fun to cook. So Food52’s resident forager, Tama Matsuoka Wong, is introducing us to the seasonal wild plants we should be looking for, and the recipes that will make our kitchens feel a little more wild.
If you’ve ever found a blueberry or a black raspberry on the side of a trail and popped it in your mouth, you’ve been foraging. Although it’s more convenient to “forage” farmers markets or grocery aisles for cultivated berries, I love the intense flavor of wild berries, as well as the fun of picking them in their natural habitat. Here is a rundown of some of the summer season’s most common wild berries:
Aggregate berries: Raspberries, blackberries, and wineberries
Aggregate berries are distinguished by their tightly packed clusters of fruits, known as carpels. The most common example is the raspberry, which is really a bunch of tiny red fruits clustered together. This sort of formation is a good thing, because each little fruit droplet on its own would hardly be enough for a mouthful!
These berries belong to the rose family, and grow on long arching “canes” that often form dense, brambly thickets. Much like roses, their bristles and thorns can make picking a somewhat prickly adventure — so be prepared!
Tama Matsuoka Wong
Wild red raspberries, or Rubus strigosus (above), can be found throughout North America, excluding the Deep South. Unfortunately, I sometimes find that wild raspberries can be quite seedy and dry, depending on the place and the weather. Black raspberries — the eastern Rubus Occidentalis and the western Rubus leucodermis — are native to North America and are found from mid- to late summer.
When you pick a raspberry from its plant, it leaves behind a small white cone — that’s the “receptacle,” which attaches the fruit to the cane. The blackberry cone receptacle, on the other hand, remains attached to the fruit, which explains why blackberries are flat where they connect with the plant, while raspberries have that hollow bit where the cone once was.
Tama Matsuoka Wong
The Asian wineberry, or Rubus phoenicolasius (above), grows on the shady edges of woods throughout most of North America, and is easy to identify because it has very fuzzy, thorn-less canes. Some wineberries are more tart than others, but they all have an incredibly fresh taste and a ruby-colored, jewel-like shine. The fruit emerges from fuzzy cases — which almost look like Christmas lights — which slowly open to reveal bright red berries. Like raspberries, they leave behind a small, white, cone-shaped receptacle when picked. Since wineberries are invasive, I never hesitate to hack away at their canes like a lumbering bear.
Tama Matsuoka Wong
Mulberries (above), often found on old farms and in backyards, are also aggregate berries, but they grow from trees. The entire fruit is joined to the stem directly, so there is no white receptacle left behind when they’re picked. The indigenous mulberry tree, Morus Rubra, has been hybridized with the Morus Alba tree from Asia, and now bears both white and red fruit.
“Crown” berries: Blueberries, huckleberries, and juneberries
Wild blueberries and huckleberries are in the Heath family, and grow as bushes or shrubs in soils with low acidity levels. While these are all bluish in color, the key identifier is that the edible blueberries all have a crown at one end.
Wild blueberries (below) look very similar to the store-bought variety, except they’re much smaller and less plump. What they lack in girth they make up for with incredible flavor: After I’ve been eating a lot of wild ones, I find cultivated blueberries taste bland and watered down.
Tama Matsuoka Wong
Huckleberries are quite small, though their seeds are larger than those of blueberries and tend to stick to your teeth. My friend, West Coast-based forager Connie Green, swears by coastal huckleberries, which take on a deep flavor in September. While huckleberries have had a couple of difficult years due to droughts, she reports that this year looks more promising.
Juneberries, also called serviceberries, are bluish-purple berries that have a crown at one end but grow from trees rather than bushes. The Amelanchier canadensis variety grows wild on the East Coast, while the Amelanchier alnifolia, known as saskatoons, are prevalent in the Pacific Northwest. These berries are plump and juicy, with a sweet-tart taste; like aggregate berries, they are also a part of the rose family. They make great jam, especially when mixed with rose petals.
It is important to note that there are several varieties of poisonous berries: Pokeweed, privet, honeysuckle vine berries, nightshade, and Japanese honeysuckle are all blue or purple in color; red-colored poisonous berries include bush honeysuckle and yew. Neither are aggregate fruits, nor do their berries have crowns. Always be sure to identify your plants, and do not just pop any old berry into your mouth as an experiment.
After a day spent foraging (and gobbling) berries in the woods, the last thing I want to do is spend a lot of time cooking, which is exactly why I tend to rely on store-bought pie crust for this incredibly simple pie. The pie is all berry, so their wild flavors shine through. It gets its zing from a bit of lemon and cassis, a trick I learned from my friend Betsy. It is also very flexible in terms of berry-to-berry ratios, so if I’ve eaten up most of the blueberries, I can just add more wineberries, and so on.
1 double pie crust (your favorite recipe, or store-bought)
5 cups mixed wild berries (I used 2 cups wineberries, 2 cups wild blueberries, and 1 cup mulberries)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cassis
Juice of half a lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
1/3 cup flour
Fruit jam (we used wineberry-blueberry jam from last year)
1 egg yolk (optional)
Raw sugar (optional)
Tama Matsuoka Wong is a professional forager and the author of Foraged Flavor.
A theatrical performance and film screening in celebration of Native cultures.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Details
EMP celebrates Northwest Native cultures with a play featuring youth actors from EMP’s Community Access Partner Red Eagle Soaring, and a documentary film about former head of the American Indian Heritage School, Bob Eaglestaff.
1:30pm–3:00pm, Film: Eaglestaff
Seattle-based Native American documentarian Rimone Brandom will present his documentary Eaglestaff (2014), about legendary Native educator and former head of the American Indian Heritage School, Bob Eaglestaff. A half-hour Q&A with the director will follow the film. JBL Theater
3:00pm–4:00pm, Play: Slapoo
This performance of Slapoo takes the traditional Co-Salish witch story and reimagines it as a climate change allegory, presented by Red Eagle Soaring. All actors are youth participants of the organization’s Seattle Indian Youth Arts and Performance (SIYAP) program. Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theatre exists “to empower American Indian and Alaska Native youth to express themselves with confidence and clarity through traditional and contemporary performing arts.” Level 3
Date and Time
August 16, 2014
1:30pm-4:00pm
Venue
EMP Museum
Level 3, JBL Theater
325 5th Avenue N
Seattle, WA 98109
PORT ANGELES — “The Strong People,” an award-winning documentary chronicling the Elwha River dam removals west of Port Angeles, is coming to the Elwha Klallam Heritage Training Center, 401 E. First St., at 11 a.m. Sunday (Aug. 3).
Filmmakers Heather Hoglund and Matt Lowe will be in attendance.
The filmmakers are suggesting a $3 donation to recoup travel and screening fees.
Told through the eyes of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, “The Strong People” examines the restoration of the Elwha River as two dams are removed, depicting the project’s environmental repercussions and its effects on the tribe.
To explore the range of consequences of the Elwha River dams’ presence and removal, Hoglund and Lowe interviewed tribal members to learn about the importance of the Elwha and its salmon.
Tulalip storyteller Lois Landgrebe discusses life as a storyteller
By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
TULALIP – Tulalip tribal member Lois Landgrebe has always been a storyteller. What started out as an entertaining way to comfort her younger sister during childhood has evolved into a beautiful craft she uses to connect people to her tribal culture.
Bilingual in English and her tribe’s traditional language, Lushootseed, she gracefully uses the two languages interchangeably to help the listener understand the historical importance of her stories, while also being entertained.
A steady increase of requests from across the region to hear native stories has catapulted this once local storyteller into a larger audience venue. Through the use of storytelling she is able to educate local communities about tribal history and culture, as well as teach listeners about ethics and morals in the same manner as her ancestors would have.
Tulalip News/See-Yaht-Sub recently sat down with Landgrebe to discuss the art of storytelling and how she uses the words of her elders to continue one of the oldest ways to communicate and pass on history for the next generation.
TN/SYS: When did you begin to tell stories?
Landgrebe: I started with my adoptive baby sister. Our mother passed away when I was 11 and she was 3, so we ended up sharing a bedroom together when we were relocated. She felt alone and scared, so I would go to bed early just to keep her company and ended up starting to tell her stories. I was about 12 or 13 years old when that started, and I learned through my birth mother Carol that her father was a storyteller. He had told stories to my mother and uncles when they were little, so she tells me storytelling is in my blood.
I used to tell stories to the elementary kids on my school bus route, and this was way out in the country boondocks and it takes almost an hour to get to school. I always had a saved seat among the elementary kids because I would carry on a saga of a story that would continue and continue and would last for weeks. They were unique stories that I made up about animals and they absolutely loved it. I would give each animal personality characteristics and they had conflicts and such, so it was like a movie.
TN/SYS: How did you come to tell Tulalip stories?
Landgrebe: I was hired as a Lushootseed language assistant in 1994 and I started learning traditional stories. This is where I also met Dr. Toby Langen and learned from Ray ‘Te At Mus’ Moses, Vi Hilbert and Grace Goedel. Each time I hear a story I am able to retain most of it. I can do Te At Mus’ stories word for word because I have heard them a dozen times; so I really try to keep to his format.
TN/SYS: What is it that you love the most about storytelling? You are naturally a calm, quiet person, but when you tell a story there is a transformation.
Landgrebe: I think most of the time I take kind of a back seat to things in life and such because I am a quiet person, but when it comes to storytelling and presentation, and even the state of the Tulalip Tribes, I take an absolute passion. Sharing that gives me the strength to take the front seat and get out there.
TN/SYS: What is your favorite story to tell?
Landgrebe: I think my favorite is the “Pheasant and Raven”. I like it because it has a repetition in it so I can pause and the audience can blurt out what comes next, because they know exactly what is going to happen because it happens to the other characters.
TN/SYS: Do you prepare yourself before you have to tell a story? Is there a routine that you do right before telling a story?
Landgrebe: Usually my mind is set and I have to give myself a few minutes. Sometimes I think it is the spirit of a storyteller that I take on because sometimes I don’t plan it. I just stand up and introduce or do a song, and it is like stories line up. It is hard to explain. Some that come right to me are in the back of my mind and I know that is the story that needs to be told.
Lois Landgrebe tells the story of “Beaver and the Field Mouse,” to a large crowd in the Hibulb Cultural Center longhouse Photo/ Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News
TN/SYS: Do you write your stories down or is it all by memorization and how do you remember all those stories?
Landgrebe: A lot of it is by memorization. I do actually write them down upon request for an article or something.
Sometimes I catch myself in the wrong character. I will get done with “Mink and Whale” and start “Coyote and Rock,’and I will suddenly say whale instead of rock, so you have to be careful, especially in Lushootseed.
TN/SYS: When you tell the stories in Lushootseed do you feel it adds a deeper meaning to you and to your audience?
Landgrebe: Yes I do. I definitely do. I think that sometimes as Lushootseed speakers we take it for granted that we can write it down without thinking about it. And folks watch us write it down and they are amazed. I think that audiences that hear ancient Native languages, that when you first announce that this is endangered, and when you pronounce words that they have never ever heard or think would exist with the hard and guttural sounds, there are people that come up later and say they love to hear it. It is a way of preserving it.
TN/SYS: There are not many storytellers, and just like traditional carving, you have to be taught, you just can’t get up and tell a story. How do you feel as a Tulalip storyteller and Tulalip tribal member to be able to travel to different places with the teachings of your elders and from the people that taught you their stories?
Landgrebe: I feel like an echo of my ancestors. I really adhere to protocol to make sure that they are acknowledged. If the story is from Te At Mus and the Moses family I always make sure, as tribal members, they are mentioned. I always make sure there is that acknowledgement.
It makes me feel nostalgic. Not to toot my own horn because I feel humbled, but when I get on the stage, I feel important to be able to tell these stories. Stories are kept alive. When you are telling them you are breathing new life into them and it keeps that story going. And when you are listening to it, you continue to bring life to it as well, because it can’t move on without going into your ears and mind and being remembered. When I am telling them to little kids, I always pause for a moment and tell them about respect. We have to respect our traditional stories. We don’t know how old these stories are and how long they have been passed on from storyteller to children to another storyteller, so that makes children really stop and listen.
TN/SYS: When did you know that you were ready to step out and tell these traditional stories and that this was your path?
Landgrebe: I think it was right after I started working at the Hibulb Cultural Center. I started to become more known for storytelling with audiences that would visit. I knew I was a storyteller between 2001 and 2010, when I was with the Lushootseed program. They would receive requests to story tell and they would turn them over to me. To me, storytelling isn’t something that gives me anxiety, I feel privileged to be able to tell them.
TN/SYS: Do you consider storytelling an art form?
Landgrebe: Yes definitely. Most would look at it as more of an entertainment, which it was and is a form of entertainment. But there is also, locked in, an obligation to share a, or several, traditional teachings within it. It is almost like keeping in with a design, you can’t necessarily change it too much; you might be able to a little, only to fit to an audience. I have a way of clueing in to what my audience is. If they are younger children I can voice to them. If it was high school students I wouldn’t go, “ok and then they…” I just have that feel and I think as a storyteller you really know your audience and where their level of understanding is, so you can raise that level of complexity based on that.
TN/SYS: Storytelling is a very traditional form of communication, where do you see it fitting into the lives of our youth today, where mostly you compete with them checking Instagram and Facebook?
Landgrebe: That is a hard one. Our lives are very instamatic. Pulling away from technology can sometimes be a treat. Silencing the devices and being in a moment that is not a part of electricity or technology can give a whole another human interaction. Storytelling can be as enriching as watching a movie. You engage with your mind and your ears, and even your heart. When you listen you visualize the words. I have had groups, that when it is over, they are not ready for it to end.
TN/SYS: Can you tell me the elements of storytelling or the process you go through when you are learning a new story?
Landgrebe: I think the best way for me is to just hear it. I grasp onto stories better when I hear it told. I have learned stories on paper or on the Internet, but it takes me a little bit more time to learn them. I think the oral presentation is more susceptible for me to pick up. Sometimes scribbling down an outline because you are not quite as familiar with it as much, but as a storyteller you grasp onto the patterns of the story. A lot of our traditional stories have a pattern, we call them pattern episodes. The same thing will happen more than once in the story to different characters. It helps listeners learn the teaching.
My MO is patterns episode. When I stand up to tell the story it comes out stronger when it is in a pattern than if it wasn’t. Sometimes a story will just come out that way.
TN/SYS: Can you explain what you experience when you are telling a story?
Landgrebe: It is almost like an adrenaline and heaviness on your heart, but your heart is pumping through it. It is hard to explain. You are happy. You pause and you look for a lot of eye contact. It is really unique to see that connection and you pan across and you look to make sure your audience is with you. If you notice they are not then there is something you are not getting across to them.
It is amazing how everything melts away except for yourself and the audience. Afterwards you notice the stage and everything; you want to get off and get away. It is amazing how it all just shrinks away.
TN/SYS: What is your favorite age group to tell stories to?
Landgrebe: Third, fourth and fifth grade. They are old enough to understand the complexities of the story and not too old to think they know it all. Grown ups are a good group to but I really enjoy the youth.
Landgrebe is scheduled to appear on August 30 at 1:30 p.m. at the Hibulb Cultural Center for their monthly storytelling series. For more information on future storytelling events featuring Landgrebe or to request a story, please contact her at moontalk.storyteller@yahoo.com
Brandi N. Montreuil: 360-913-5402; bmontreuil@tulalipnews.com
The Snoqualmie Tribe is donating $250,000 to assist in the relief efforts for those affected by the devastating fires burning in Eastern Washington. In total the Tribe is giving $200,000 to the American Red Cross Eastern Washington region designated to the 2014 fire victims and $50,000 to Washington Animal Search and Rescue.
“We are all part of a larger community, and felt in a time like this that it is important to reach out and help those in need. Our hearts go out to all of those affected by this massive fire, and hope that our contributions can help in the recovery and healing process,” said Carolyn Lubenau, tribal chairwoman.
After extensive research, the Tribe decided to place its donations with the American Red Cross and Washington Animal Search and Rescue. Both groups can directly benefit from the donations and make a difference in people’s lives. Officials including the Wenatchee Red Cross have said the best way for people to assist in the relief effort was through monetary donations.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered a loss due to a fire and also to those working so diligently to put it out,” adds Lubenau.
The fires burning in Eastern Washington are part of an eruption of lightning-sparked wildfires across Washington and Oregon that have scorched to date almost a million acres of land. The largest fire in Eastern Washington is the Carlton Complex fire that is the worst of Washington State’s seven fires.
The Kukutali Preserve is the first to be jointly managed by an Indian tribe, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, and another agency, in this case Washington State Parks. The preserve is located near La Conner. Photo: WASHINGTON STATE PARKS
The Kukutali Preserve in Similk Bay near La Conner has opened through a partnership between Washington State Parks and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.
The preserve opened to the public during a ceremony June 16.
State and tribal officials said the preserve is believed to be the first park in the United States to be co-owned and co-managed by a tribe and another government, such as a state. Management of the preserve will focus on conservation and research, public education and limited recreational use, according to a State Parks news release.
“It’s a great day to be making history,” Swinomish tribal Chairman Brian Cladoosby said during his keynote address at the opening ceremony.
“It’s going to be great for visitors to witness and see the beauty that we’ve seen here forever,” Cladoosby said in the release. “This wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of people coming together to make sure this dream became a reality.”
Located entirely within the Swinomish Reservation, the preserve includes 84 upland acres on Kiket Island and Flagstaff Point and 9 upland acres on Fidalgo Island. It includes more than 2 miles of nearly intact shoreline, with native eelgrass beds, multiple fish species and shellfish.
Numerous endangered or threatened species make their home in the preserve’s diverse habitats, which include old-growth trees.
Among the preserve’s unique features is a rare type of environment called a “rocky bald,” according to State Park officials. Found on Flagstaff Point, west of Kiket Island, this area has fragile, thin soil that hosts a unique community of native plants and nesting waterfowl. To protect that ecosystem, access to Flagstaff Point is prohibited.
The preserve also contains cultural resources important to the Swinomish tribe.
Right now, there are 2 miles of walking trails with plans to add an ADA-accessible boardwalk, another trail and amenities such as a picnic shelter, picnic sites, interpretive information and two vault restrooms, according to the release.
The preserve is open daily for day use only, from dawn to dusk. Vehicles will be limited to the parking lot, and the remainder of the site is accessible only by foot. The parking lot is at the northwest corner of Snee-Oosh and Kiket Island roads, west of La Conner. A Discover Pass is required to park at the preserve
State Parks, with the help of the Trust for Public Land, acquired the upland portion of the property in June 2010 after it had been owned privately for almost 100 years.
PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) — The disease wreaking havoc on wild sea star populations on the West Coast has struck captive collections on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
The Peninsula Daily News reports Monday that sea stars at Port Townsend’s Marine Life Center and Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles have died of the disease, known as sea star wasting.
In Port Townsend, 12 ochre stars have died, while the illness eliminated a species from the tanks in Port Angeles. Both centers pipe in ocean water for their tanks. Experts believe the disease is infectious and might be caused by bacteria or a virus.
Caretakers at the Olympic Peninsula’s marine science centers don’t intend to replace sea stars until they feel more confident they can keep them alive. They also want to avoid taking breeding adults that might be needed to replenish wild colonies.
MARYSVILLE – Imagine the city’s waterfront filled with classy restaurants, a boardwalk and boutiques. Or how about condominiums and a casino? Wouldn’t a park with a stage for concerts and plays be nice?
What, you didn’t even know Marysville has a waterfront? It doesn’t look like much now, but city officials hope it will be something special in the future.
Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring said it’s part of the Downtown Revitalization vision, which includes the recently completed and widely popular Spray Park.
“We want a vibrant downtown that’s generating income and where everybody has jobs,” Nehring said, adding the goal is to have private enterprise build up the waterfront.
The downtown master plan calls for a waterfront trail and mixed use of business and living space on the property south of Penny’s.
Four years ago the city bought the former Ed and Susan Geddes five-acre marina at 1326 1st St. for $1.9 million. It took four years to decide on a price, as the Geddeses filed suit against the city due to surface water flowing into the marina. Bill Geddes had owned the property in the 1930s as a retention pond for a lumber mill.
The city has been applying for grants to clean up the site for years.
The city was awarded a $200,000 hazardous substances cleanup Brownsfield grant from the Environmental Protection Agency Oct. 1 of last year. A month later it received an Integrated Planning Grant from the state Department of Ecology for a similar amount. It has hired Maul Foster Alongi Consultants for $304,000 for a contract that runs from July 15, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2017.
Past activities at the location, including painting, boat sanding and fuel and oil storage and handling, likely contaminated the site with arsenic, cadmium and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition, stormwater discharge from the adjacent mill site has likely caused some of the contamination.
The property was historically used as a marina, but the city has stopped renewing leases and has removed several boat houses, the grant says.
Nehring said the city knew the site was contaminated when it bought it, and it also knew grants would be needed to move on. The state money will determine chemicals in the soils and the method of cleanup. The money from the feds will help pay for the actual cleanup.
“We need more money. This will just get us started,” Nehring said.
He said how much the cleanup will cost will be determined by what goes there. Some development needs would have to have more cleanup than others.
Nehring said the city spent about $200,000 in federal money to clean up the area just to the East a couple years ago, but that was “minor” compared with Geddes Marina, said Gloria Hirashima, Community Development director.
Hirashima said no matter what goes there drinking water will be pumped in and people will not want to be exposed to the contaminated soil. Across the street at the boat launch soil was cleaned to a point but then the site was capped and clean dirt put over it, similar to what is done to build over landfills.
A key to the success of the area will be finding a use that provides “constant activity.” Hirashima said that is lacking at the boat launch, and that is why homeless have inhabited that area. She said if Geddes Marina becomes more like the skate park it will be successful.
“There used to be a bad crowd there, but the families reclaimed that park,” she said. “We need active usage at a daily rate.”
The consultant will work in two phases. The first to analyze the site, the second to design remedial action and oversight.
The first phase includes cleanup options, community involvement, developer options and market analysis. Cost is $220,000. The second phase includes permitting and working with agencies, the cleanup, oversight and the final report. Cost is $84,000.
Final approval would come from the Department of Ecology.
PHASE ONE – Site analysis
• Presentation to the City Council and Open House for residents.
• Analyze cleanup costs to evaluate potential developer interest and flag areas of risk for the city.
• Analyze physical condition of land, including stormwater, hydrogeological and geotechnical.
• Analyze federal, state, and local land-use and environmental regulations.
• Study local and regional real estate market to look at potential marketing opportunities. That will include cost estimates, achievable rents as well as vacancy rates for competing development sites. The market analysis will ensure that the development vision has a realistic opportunity for implementation.
PHASE TWO – remedial action and oversight
• Work with federal, state, local governments and Tulalip Tribes to obtain required approval and permits.
• Cleanup plan to include approach, sampling strategy, cleanup levels and post-cleanup monitoring.
• Will develop construction bid package that will allow the city to procure a contractor to complete the remedial action.
• Will provide field oversight associated with implementation of the remedial action.
What do you think should be done on the waterfront?
