Brownfields Update for the Pacific Northwest

A unique pilot program in Washington’s King County is now being used as a model for other counties throughout the state.

The Interagency Compliance Team of King County (ICT) was established to address troublesome properties posing a contamination threat to the environment. It was started with grant monies from the EPA’s State and Tribal Response Program, and relies on a collaborative interagency approach to achieve compliance from noncompliant sites subject to multi-agency regulation. Using a secure Web site for communication between the agencies, the program is able to maximize local, state and federal resources and get problem sites cleaned up.

So just what does this program have to do with brownfields?

The ICT is preventing the creation of more brownfields, says John Means, brownfields grant manager for the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE). By intervening early at sites likely to cause environmental contamination and then bringing these troublesome sites into compliance, the program is preventing the sites from erupting into a much larger health problem for a community, he explains. And, that also means the program is saving money down the line in remediation costs.

“We don’t need more brownfields,” Means says. “We have plenty.”

Formerly called the Troublesome Sites Workgroup and renamed the ICT in 2005, the program began in 2000 with a partnership between DOE’s Hazardous Waste Program and the King County Local Hazardous Waste Management Program. The pilot project was established because of a need to pull together agencies’ efforts. Some sites were slipping through the cracks because there are so many agencies involved with so many jurisdictions, Means says. In other cases, property owners were manipulating the system and not working toward compliance.

The group includes regulators representing local, state and federal agencies working to promote compliance with environmental regulations. The county dedicated a prosecutor to deal with enforcement actions and measures with property owners. More than 130 members have participated in the ICT at some time. That’s more than two-dozen agencies, says Elliott Zimmermann of the DOE.

Among the ICT’s tools is its secure Web site. The site allows anyone from any agency to post documents, photos, field notes and other information about a troublesome site in King County. The Web site includes a list of specific sites with a contact list of the agency people working on it. It’s one large depository of information, Zimmermann says.

Sites targeted by ICT usually have chronic environmental issues that draw public complaints. In the program’s beginning, the ICT was dealing primarily with junkyards. Common problems include containers and drums of hazardous waste abandoned on someone’s property, hazardous wastes generated by a business owner claiming not to have the resources to properly manage it, solid waste abandoned at a business or residential property, abandoned vehicles, leaking underground tanks, and mismanaged wastewater issues, according to a report by the ICT.

The ICT estimates it costs $2.2 million annually to address the various sites. However, King County officials now realize it costs less to fund this program than it does to send out law enforcement officials to deal with them. So King County took over its own operations this year, dedicating prosecutor time and a staff position to the ICT. The King County program has transitioned off the EPA grant, leaving grant dollars to expand the program to other counties.

And the program’s success isn’t going unnoticed. Last year, Washington’s Skagit, Snohomish, Whatcom and Island counties began putting together a team following the ICT model, says Zimmermann, who knows of no similar program targeting troublesome sites in other states. A program is expected to start in Clark County and officials in Spokane and Yakima counties also are showing an interest, he says. He would like to see a program in all the major urban areas throughout the state.

Zimmermann believes the pilot program has been a success. In some cases, the ICT has been able to get a property cleaned up before it turned into a huge remediation project, he says. And that means fewer brownfields in King County.