Salmon Habitat Restoration Design and Permitting at Vigor Shipyards, Seattle

Vigor Shipyards, Inc., in Seattle is implementing a habitat project to settle natural resource damage liabilities associated with historical releases of contamination discharged over prior decades to the industrial Duwamish Waterway. Vigor assumed liability after the purchase of the shipyard and entered into a consent decree with federal agencies and tribes to demolish shipyard infrastructure and convert approximately 1/10 of the active facility to new aquatic habitat for juvenile salmonids. The new subtidal, intertidal, and riparian habitat will improve existing degraded habitat in this industrially zoned but ecologically important area, and Vigor will maintain the habitat area in perpetuity, as part of the working shipyard. Project construction includes dredging, embankment construction for the habitat, stormwater improvements, demolition, pier reconfiguration, and earthwork and planting. The shipyard operations will continue throughout the project; therefore, design and construction practices have been implemented that improve shipyard infrastructure and minimize impacts to shipyard operations.