Fast-Track Integrated Environmental Cleanup and Maritime Terminal Redevelopment of Former Mill Site

This paper describes a unique approach to integrate environmental cleanup and redevelopment that the Port of Everett (Port) pursued to expedite the revitalization of a waterfront brownfield site into productive maritime industrial use within three years of acquiring the property. The former Kimberly-Clark pulp and paper mill was closed in 2012, after which Kimberly-Clark entered into an agreed order with the Washington State Department of Ecology to clean up the site. The Port purchased the site in 2019 to redevelop it as a new 35-acre (14.2 hectare) maritime cargo handling yard to support their adjacent marine terminals, with the terminal pavement doubling as a site wide environmental cap under an amended agreed order. This integrated redevelopment and cleanup accelerated the permitting/regulatory approvals, as major portions of the redevelopment were considered elements of the state-regulated cleanup and therefore did not require formal permit approval by state and local jurisdictions.