To protect salmon, DNR pulls toxic pilings from Steamboat Slough

MARYSVILLE — A sound like a jackhammer echoed up and down the shallow reaches of Steamboat Slough. Folks taking their dogs for an early afternoon stroll in nearby Ebey Waterfront Park on a sunny Friday probably hardly registered the racket, but from across the stream, it was deafening.

The rig responsible for the noise was big enough to match. A crane towered 100 feet above the water, perched on top of a gargantuan boat. Its operator carefully lowered a vibratory hammer onto one of the dozen or so pilings sunk into the mud along the shoreline, the wood so aged it seemed the huge chunk of metal should simply snap it on contact.

But as the hammer started its noisy work once more, the ancient piling gradually gave up its stake in the riverbed, shaking loose the decades worth of silt. A minute or so later, it all came free at once, revealing an extra 10 feet of wood previously sunk deep into the muck. The crane placed it on a stack of pilings destined for a specialized landfill, piled on the barge like so many Lincoln Logs.

The piling was one of nearly 300 removed from Steamboat and Ebey sloughs, two arms of the Snohomish River that drain into Puget Sound just west of Marysville, over the past couple of weeks, said Christopher Robertson, aquatic restoration manager for the state Department of Natural Resources. By removing the creosote-soaked pilings from the waterways, the department is subtracting a key source of toxic pollution from crucial salmon habitat, Robertson said.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/to-protect-salmon-dnr-pulls-toxic-pilings-from-steamboat-slough/