Lora Lake Apartments Cleanup
Prior to the 1940s, the current Lora Lake Apartments site at 15001 Des Moines Memorial Dr, Burien, WA 98148 was used as residential and farmlands. During the 1940s, it became the site of Novak Barrel Washing. From the 1950s to the mid-1980s, Burien Auto Wrecking was located here.
In the mid-1980s, the Lora Lake Apartments were built and remained until 2007. The Port of Seattle purchased the apartments as part Third Runway property acquisitions in 1998 and the last residents vacated in 2007. In July of that same year, the Port collected environmental samples.
In 2009, the Ecology and the Port entered into an Agreed Order, under which the Port agreed to conduct a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) to understand the nature and extent of the contamination. The Port also demolished remaining above-ground structures and took measures — with Ecology oversight — not to disturb potentially contaminated soil.
Lora Lake Apartments cleanup implementation
On September 9, 2015, the Lora Lake Apartments Site Consent Decree (Legal Agreement between Ecology and the Port of Seattle) with the Final Cleanup Action Plan was entered by King County Superior Court.
To view legal documents, cleanup plans, fact sheets, and more, please visit the Lora Lake site on the Department of Ecology website.
The Port of Seattle prepared an Engineering Design Report (EDR) for the cleanup actions: soil excavation at Apartment parcel and restoring the Lora Lake wetlands. The Port also obtained the appropriate permits from the local jurisdictions and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin the cleanup work at the Lora Lake Apartments Site.
The site was awarded for remedial construction in January 2017 and a two-year construction effort has begun. The excavation of contaminated soil at the apartments was completed in August 2017. Restoration of the Lake is ongoing and expected to be complete in 2018.
