What lies beneath

• The old aluminum-fabricating plant on Northwest Market Street, next to the Ballard Locks, is ranked 5 and is in cleanup stage. Its 10 leaky underground storage tanks have been removed, and now the contamination—paints and petroleum—is being treated or removed from the soil.

• Other sites: Ballard Auto Wrecking, 2; Ballard Recycling, 3; Bardahl Oil, 3; Western Batteries, 3; Laurelhurst Oil, 4; Salmon Bay Steel, 5; General Disposal, 5; Aurora Cleaning/McAbree Property, 5.

2. East Central/Montlake

• The former L&E French Cleaners site in Madison Valley is now occupied by a modern building whose owners, originally unaware of old dry-cleaning solvents contamination, are just beginning the extensive sanitizing; the site is ranked 2 because chemicals have migrated off the property as well as beneath the new structure.

• Other sites: Circle K site, 3; Olympian Apartment Building, 4.

3. Capitol Hill/First Hill/ South Central

Annie Marie Musselman

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• The now fenced site of the old Tyler Refrigeration/laundry operation across East Cherry Street from Seattle University is actually a donated trust property of Seattle Pacific University Foundation, which is cleaning up the site, ranked 2; chemicals from electroplating and dry cleaning had been spilled or dumped at the site dating back to the 1940s.

• Other sites: Ralph's Concrete Pumping, 3; Emerald Tool, 5.

4. Downtown

• Yellow Cab's old site on Dexter Avenue North bears few obvious traces of its days as a sprawling cab parking lot and service area; its buildings, fuel storage tanks, and buried drums have been removed, and cleanup undertaken. But it's still ranked a 5 almost four years after a DOE inspector showed up and noted, "They have left behind a huge mess." A mixed-use apartment building is planned for the site when cleanup is done.

• Other sites: Metro Transit Dearborn Division, 3; Union Station, 3; Unocal/future waterfront sculpture park site, 4; Seattle Steam Co., 5; Samis Land Co. site on South Alaska Street, 5.

5. Fremont/Wallingford/ Lake Union

• Hy-Lite Mirror and Glass on Stone Way North is ranked 4 and is in the ongoing process of cleaning up lead and mercury found in its grounds, coming from rinse water used in a mirror de-silvering process.

• Other sites: Metro Lake Union facility, 1; Gas Works Park, 1; Lake Union Dry Dock, 2; Northlake Shipyard, 4; Ravenna Landfill Union Bay, 4; Lake Union Steam Plant, 5.

6. Harbor Island

• Essentially, the island is one big cleanup site—the man-made and polluted isle is listed as a US Superfund site, undergoing costly and lengthy cleanup; the Duwamish Waterway is expected to be added to the Superfund list soon. Among sites under state cleanup orders are Glacier Northwest/Lone Star property and Lockheed Yard, both ranked 1 in cleanup priority.

7. Magnolia/Interbay

• Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad at Interbay, ranked 1, has been cleaning up its spills and leaks for more than a decade, putting a new bottom on its 2.4 million gallon above-ground diesel fuel tank and treating or removing contaminated soil; inspectors note that fuel oil is most heavily concentrated nearer the water table.

• Other sites: Anderson Marine Repair, 1; Port of Seattle Terminal 91 tank farm, 1; Samis Land Co. site on Elliott Avenue West, yet unranked.

8. West/South Seattle

• The Eastern Supply Co.'s former site on First Avenue South at 77th is ranked 2, partly due to dangerous tetrachloroethylene leaching into the soil of the onetime laundry-industry supply; cleanup is under way, and inspectors say chemicals have already migrated to adjoining private properties.

• Other sites: Metro South Base, 1; Great Western Chemicals, 1; SeaCon/Markey Property, 3; Stone residential site, 5.

9. Queen Anne

• The Champion International Corp.'s old plywood and veneer mill site on 13th Avenue West at the ship canal dates back to the turn of the century; converted and now used by other industries, it retains high concentrations of resins, solvents, and paints and is ranked 1 as a hazardous site. Cleanup has been ongoing since 1991.

• Other sites: Manhattan Express, 3.

randerson@seattleweekly.com