Marine research trumps condos

Site on Foss will go to Urban Waters

KRIS SHERMAN; The News Tribune
Last updated: March 28th, 2007 07:39 AM (PDT)

The Tacoma City Council voted Tuesday evening to spend $5.6 million to buy 3.1 acres along East D Street for the Urban Waters project.

“We’re a city immersed in water, so to speak, and certainly surrounded by it,” City Councilman Bill Evans, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, told his colleagues.

The city must do everything it can to reduce pollution and remove contaminant from the area’s bodies of water, Evans said during a study session earlier Tuesday.

Purchase of the property and the cost of constructing a 40,000-square-foot laboratory and office complex on part of the land will be paid for by the city’s utility customers.

Design studies have yet to be done, but preliminary estimates peg the cost of the structure and parking at about $20 million, assistant public works director Karen Larkin told the council during the study session.

There’s about $22 million for the project in the 2007-08 budget for the city’s environmental services division, Larkin said.

The building, which could be completed in late 2008, will primarily house environmental scientists and staff from the city’s public works department.

University of Washington Tacoma researchers also would work out of the facility.

The city’s scientists need laboratories for testing of water and groundwater samples, sediments soils and air samples, Larkin said.

UWT researchers will concentrate on urban waterway and estuary health, she added.

Councilwoman Julie Anderson called putting the two together “an opportunity to combine efficiencies.”

Stan Sidor of GVA Kidder Mathews told council members his company appraised the property at $6 million. It’s now owned by Pioneer Cay Developing, LLC.

Thurston County developer Mike Cohen proposed a nine-story office and condominium building on the site, but the port, Tideflats businesses, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce and others opposed the construction of residential units in an industrial area.

Building a marine research center there makes good sense, Larkin said. The environmental services division’s scientists and engineers are spread out in several locations.

A marine dock would accommodate the city’s two water-quality sampling vessels and could be used to moor a fireboat or police boat, too, Larkin said.

In a recent communication with the city, former public works employee Mike Price questioned the city’s decision to put the laboratory on the Foss. More study was needed to determine whether a site farther away from the waterway would provide “quality source water,” he said.

“Manufactured seawater” likely might be used at the facility, as it is at other laboratories around the nation, Larkin told council members. Scientists prefer it for some research because they can control the salinity and other variables, she explained.

If researchers need to take samples directly from Commencement Bay, it would be fairly easy to lay a 2-inch-diameter pipe “just a couple hundred feet” to the mouth of the waterway, Larkin said.

At some point, the center might also employ “flow-through” technology with either artificial seawater or water pumped in from the bay for study, she said.

The city’s dreams of participating in a marine research center began seven years ago, Evans said.

The council voted nearly two years ago to allocate $500,000 to endow a faculty chair at UWT to oversee marine research at the center. The Port of Tacoma and UWT each agreed to pay $1 million for the endowment; SSA Marine provided $500,000.

The need is great to study invasive species and ballast from ships, marine biotechnologies to protect work already done to clean up waterways and aquaculture, city officials have said.

Spending “perhaps as much as $26 million” on the project might be “troubling” to the city’s ratepayers, Councilman Mike Lonergan said.

The stormwater fee “nobody seems to understand” just keeps getting “bigger and bigger and bigger,” he said.

He asked several questions before ultimately voting to approve the deal.

Councilman Tom Stenger praised the plan.

“We want to do more research. We want to get ahead of the ball in preventing pollution,” he said. “I think it’s a good deal for the ratepayers.”

Center for Urban Waters

What: A laboratory for water quality and other environmental research on the east side of the Foss Waterway. City scientists are to evaluate soil, sediment, water and other kinds of samples to gauge the success of Tacoma’s anti-pollution programs. Researchers will study sources and potential solutions to pollution in urban waterways.

Cost: $5.6 million for the property. Building design studies haven’t been done, but preliminary estimates are about $20 million.

Size: 20,000 square feet of laboratory space and 20,000 square feet of office space.

Who will pay for it? Tacoma residents’ garbage, sewer and stormwater fees will fund the project.

Who will use it? The city’s environmental scientists and engineers and University of Washington Tacoma researchers. UWT will lease 2,000 to 3,000 square feet of space.

What is Urban Waters? A public-private nonprofit organization involving the city, UWT, Port of Tacoma, SSA Marine, the Russell Family Foundation and other partners.

Kris Sherman: 253-597-8659

kris.sherman@thenewstribune.com

Originally published: March 28th, 2007 01:00 AM (PDT)