Waterway Park - A Reality - Any Day Now...

City Council this week okayed a deal to acquire wetlands open space in South Tacoma through a partnership with Pierce County Conservation Futures program, and now here’s a little piece of news about another piece of property purchased by the City through the program a few years back. The Tacoma Daily Index reports that soil remediation is underway at the head of the Foss Waterway to prepare the space for Waterway Park.

According to Su Dowie, interim executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority (FWDA), a remediation project is under way to clean the former American Plating site, located at 2110 East D Street and adjacent to Berg Scaffolding, in order to meet Model Toxics Control Act standards.

“The work began on-site in May and the clean-up is anticipated to be complete about the end of June,” Dowie told the Tacoma Daily Index on Tuesday. “Landscaping and habitat plantings will follow. A portion of the site will open for public access once the grass and habitat plantings are established. The balance of the site will be used by Berg Scaffolding until funding can be secured to complete design and full development of the site as a public park.”

The conversation around this little piece of property has been going on for years now, although with less intensity recently. Once upon a time it was quite a topic of debate; the Children’s Museum considered building a new facility down there, rowers wanted access to the water and storage for their boats, and of course there’s always been the undercurrent of the conversation about cleaning up the area and returning it to a functioning ecosystem with native plants and all that.

A couple years back kayakers and canoers (is that a word?) got their wish for a launch and storage space. Now it looks like we’re going to see some more on shore action, and more space the public can enjoy come out of all this. We’ll be looking forward to it.

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