Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz
State water quality officials are seeking answers from the Crescent City Harbor District about a hazardous waste issue concerning the former Fashion Blacksmith site.
Harbor commissioners on Wednesday approved a proposal to increase the scope of work that Eureka-based consultant SHN performed to include taking additional samples from a pile of sediment that’s in the water.
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is seeking two additional samples from the bottom of the pile that’s in the water, Community System Solutions CEO Mike Bahr told commissioners. It’s seeking more information about the levels of aluminum, barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, titanium and zinc.
The Water Quality Board is also seeking more information on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon levels, or PAHs, Bahr said.
“There is an order to do a plan and the Water Quality Control Board wants more samples from what’s in the water,” he said, adding that water quality officials also want to know the dimensions of the pile in the water. “The good news is, this is not a cleanup order at this point in time. This is an order for more information.”
According to Bahr, the cost to have SHN take those two additional samples from the sediment pile in the water, is $30,000, which will come from the Harbor District’s Hazardous Mitigation Grant Program dollars.
The Harbor District is required to submit a work plan to the Water Quality Control Board by Jan. 5, according to a Nov. 4 letter the state agency sent to CCHD. The Water Quality Control Board also sent a commitment document outlining its recovery costs for remediating the hazardous waste. Bahr advised the Harbor District not to sign that document until the additional testing is finished.
“Part of what the Water Quality Board is going to do is give you a cost estimate of what their costs are based on if this needs to be monitored,” he said. “That’s why they’re asking for the tests and the plan. Then they’ll come back and say, ‘we may or may not have costs, here are your costs,’ now you commit to paying those costs. Don’t commit to paying those costs before we have costs.”
SHN conducted an environmental assessment of the former Fashion Blacksmith site in January and February, about six months after the business stopped offering boat yard services in June 2024.
In a report to the Harbor Board in September, Bahr said SHN found three stockpiles of used sand blasting media, which California considers hazardous waste, as well as elevated concentrations of copper and other metals near the sea wall and dock adjacent to the boat yard.
The “select metals” exceeded safety thresholds, but were not at emergency levels, Bahr told commissioners on Wednesday. But, while the Harbor District still has $656,305 in HMGP dollars left, it does not have the funds to conduct a cleanup.
The estimated cost for moving the three stockpiles on land is $300,000, Bahr said. Community System Solutions is seeking grant dollars from the California Department of Toxic Substance Control for the cleanup. In the meantime, the Water Control Board is recommending the Harbor District cover the piles during the winter, Bahr said.
There is currently no determination if the sediment pile in the water needs to be cleaned up nor how much that cleanup would cost, Bahr told commissioners.
“Our hopes are that over time, that pile in the water dissipates because it’s in the water,” he said.
According to Bahr, the Water Board in its letter discussed past uses of the former Fashion Blacksmith site and also sent a notice to the previous tenant.
“The way this works is the government entity goes to the state with a cleanup plan, which is what’s being asked for here,” he said. “The Department of Toxic Substance Control gives a grant or a loan that becomes forgivable to that entity, the government entity, and then the state pursues collection of the funds from the tenant for the funds that the state put out.”
At the Harbor District’s Sept. 24 meeting, former Fashion Blacksmith owner Ted Long highlighted five examples of data gaps he noted in SHN’s assessment. One had to do with the Harbor District operating a travel lift on property it shared with Fashion Blacksmith, he said.
He also alleged that over the last several years the Harbor District dumped thousands of pounds of fish carcasses and dock scrapings “over the bulkhead below the launch ramp.”
On Wednesday, though harbor commissioner Rick Shepherd brought up the statements that Long made at the Sept. 24 meeting, he didn’t address the concerns the former boatyard owner raised. He did say that the hazardous waste issues SHN uncovered needed to be addressed for boatyard services to resume at the harbor.
“If a tenant were to come in, they won’t touch it without total clearance (from the Water Board) and no insurance company would touch it without total clearance,” Shepherd said. “So this is a way of moving forward to get the boatyard.”
During the Harbor Commissioners’ discussion, Vice Chairman John Evans asked about potential elevated “isotopes” that have been caused by dam removal on the Klamath River.
Shepherd responded, saying that representatives associated with the Yurok Tribe were taking sediment samples in the harbor on Tuesday.
In 2023, the Harbor District and the Board of Supervisors entered into an agreement with the Klamath River Renewal Corporation that outlined monitoring and potential reimbursement costs associated with any outsized sediment load impacting the harbor as a result of dam removal.
On Wednesday, Shepherd said KRRC could be liable for any dredging needed as a result, though the amount of sediment entering into the harbor from dam removal has been negligible.
