Vigor Industrial Southwest Yard Habitat Project: Demolition of Shipways and Piers on the Duwamish River and Construction of Transition Zone Habitat

Vigor Industrial owns a 27-acre facility at the mouth of the Western Waterway of the Duwamish River. This facility primarily constructs and repairs midsized to large maritime vessels. In 2014, Vigor began negotiating with NOAA a settlement for Natural Resource Damages associated with the Todd Shipyard Sediment Operable Unit of the Harbor Island Superfund Site. Since that time, Vigor has reached an agreement for a Consent Decree and the scope of a habitat restoration project to be constructed at the Shipyard. Using the 2013 PEIS prepared by NOAA, in conjunction with the Elliot Bay Trustees Council, Vigor has designed a project to improve habitat connectivity in the Western Waterway estuary. The PEIS identified restoring mudflat, marsh, and riparian habitat in both the transition zone and off channel habitat as being of high importance for salmon recovery in the Green/Duwamish and Central Puget Sound Watershed (WRIA 9). The current project will construct 0.29 acres of riparian buffer, 0.39 acres of marsh, and 1.96 acres of intertidal mudflat in an area previously used for shipbuilding. This will result in the removal of approximately 4,900 creosote piles, convert 1.15 acres of upland to aquatic off channel habitat, and has a net reduction of 1.16 acres of overwater coverage. Additionally, twenty light industrial stormwater outfalls that discharge directly to the Western Waterway will be replaced with a new stormwater collection and treatment system. This project is also in the immediate vicinity of a 2006 project that removed 1.6 acres of over-water coverage and established 0.5 acres of intertidal on-channel habitat. Vigor is excited about constructing this project at our shipyard because it aligns with our company values of truth, responsibility, evolution, and love. This project is currently in the environmental permitting phase and construction is anticipated to begin in early 2021