Healthy Bay.
Healthy Community.
Healthy Future.
Cheers to a Healthy Bay Tickets on Sale Now!
We are excited to announce that tickets to Cheers to a Healthy Bay are on sale now through the end of February. Don’t miss your chance to join us for an unforgettable event celebrating our beautiful bay and supporting CHB’s work to protect it! Join us for a night filled with stunning auction items, thrilling bids, and the joy of supporting a great cause at this “under the sea” themed extravaganza.
Date: Friday, May 17th
Time: 5:30 p.m
Venue: Foss Waterway Seaport
This is your chance to make a difference while enjoying an evening of elegance and community spirit. Stay tuned for more details, ticket sales announcements, and exclusive previews!
All documents can be found on Ecology’s Occidental Chemical Site Documents webpage, which also includes:
- Occidental Chemical Public Notice: Provides brief site background and links to translated documents (Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Russian, Khmer).
- Occidental Chemical Fact Sheet: Provides more site background and a diagram of proposed remedy.
CHB will help notify the public of any upcoming meetings. So far, the only scheduled hearing is:
- March 6th 2024, 4:30 – 8:30 p.m.
- Ecology’s Agenda
- Tacoma Convention Center
1500 Commerce St.
Tacoma, WA 98402
Public Notice: Occidental Chemical Superfund Site Public Comment Period
The Washington State Department of Ecology has just released several documents for public review and comment regarding the Occidental Chemical Superfund site in Tacoma, WA. This site (Oxy Chem) has been on the federal Superfund list since the 1980s and has been awaiting significant cleanup for many years. As Communities for a Healthy Bay (CHB) works to review these documents and offer substantive comments, we encourage community members and those living nearby to voice their support for a cleanup plan that prioritizes human and environmental health rather than the overall cost to the company responsible for the pollution in the first place. You can find our previous work on ensuring a robust cleanup plan for this site on CHB’s Occidental Chemical webpage.
This public comment period runs from December 18th 2023 – March 29th 2024, 11:59 a.m. and addresses the following documents:
- Draft Cleanup Action Plan: Outlines Ecology’s recommendations and expectations for site cleanup.
- Draft Agreed Order: Legal requirements for initiating and maintaining cleanup actions.
- Draft Permit: Secures Ecology’s ability to oversee environmental cleanup actions.
- Draft State Environmental Policy Act – Checklist and Determination of Non-Significance: Used to evaluate potential environmental impacts.
- Draft Public Participation Plan: Describes approach to community engagement and participation in cleanup actions.
Upcoming Events
What We Do
Bay Patrol
As the only environmental organization with a patrol vessel in the South Sound, Communities for a Healthy Bay has a unique ability to quickly identify and tackle pollution that would otherwise go unnoticed or unchecked. Bay Patrol is supported by contracts with the City of Tacoma and works closely with the Department of Ecology, the United States Coast Guard, and other state & local agencies.
Superfund Cleanups
The very core of our work is mobilizing the community to push for the effective cleanup of toxic contamination in and around Commencement Bay. While there is no doubt the bay is cleaner today than ever before, there is still much work to be done.
Climate Change
Climate change isn’t just a fact, it’s the reality we are facing today. To stop it, we need to drastically reduce the amount of pollution we create. That’s why we’re working to place a temporary freeze on future fossil fuel facilities and expansions in the Tacoma Tideflats.
Education
To achieve a cleaner future, we’re working closely with local classrooms to empower the next generation of environmental stewards through youth education efforts like our Student Stewards Conservation Program.
News Updates
December 20, 2023
Pacific Producer
Ensuring Environmental Safety: State Takes Action After 18 Months We are pleased to see the state finally taking care of the Pacific Producer and its associated pollution risks after a long 18 months. While it took longer than we’d hoped,...
December 20, 2023
Community Alert
Darling Ingredients is trying to reopen its animal rendering facility in the Port of Tacoma. This is the same facility that engulfed Tacoma in a putrid odor for days in 2019 and was closed by a large fire in 2022....
October 24, 2023
Rising Paralytic Shellfish Poison Levels Prompt Beach Closures in Pierce County
On September 21, 2023, the Washington State Department of Health issued the first beach closure in Pierce County due to high levels of Paralytic Shellfish Poison (PSP). PSP, a toxin produced by certain algae, can be harmful when consumed. Beach closures due...