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History and Ecology of Commencement Bay
By Katherine Patterson with contributions from Jamie Gruber
Commencement Bay, off the coast of the city of Tacoma, is a unique feature of Washington’s landscape.
It contains one of the nation’s largest ports, and an environment that has been heavily altered and
influenced by man, resulting in many ecological and environmental problems that are only recently
beginning to be solved.
Before its dredging, the bay was the outlet of the gigantic Puyallup River Delta, which covered extensive
areas of freshwater floodplains. One of the major characteristics of this estuarine transition zone is the
vast distribution of resources through the channels, including the deposition of sediments and leaf
detritus. The area provided ideal conditions for the proliferation of many different species, including
juvenile salmon (Simenstad 2000).
The bay is important because it is used for a variety of both human and biological activities. It is a major
shipping port, and is the nearest large body of water to a large portion of the city of Tacoma. Important
natural and ecological resources include the sediments and surface waters themselves, as well as several
species of birds and fish, including the marbled murrelet and the White River spring run Chinook salmon.
The alteration of Commencement Bay began in the early 1900s, when the meandering streams of the
Puyallup River Delta were channelized and its tideflats filled to create the eight artificial waterways now
found in the bay. In the late 19th century, the city was a newly expanding industrial area, fueled by the
activity of the Northern Pacific Railroad terminus (Pierce County 2007). Tacoma was the site of the
region’s first sawmill (Pierce County 2007), which would be the catalyst for the establishment of
hundreds of other businesses and industrial plants that, over the years, would compromise the waters
of the bay.
The city’s boom years were around 1875-1900. At that time, the largest businesses were lumber mills,
built on Tacoma’s tideflats. In the beginning of the 20th Century, more warehouses and grain storing
facilities were built along Thea Foss Waterway (Pierce County 2007). The bay was officially made the
Port of Tacoma in 1918.
The massive amount of dredging and building of the new waterways in Commencement Bay
dramatically altered the landscape. The most immediate effect was the reduction of habitat for many
native species. It was realized, too late, that the many estuaries and streams of the Puyallup River had
been important spawning grounds for several species of young salmon.
Another consequence of industrialization was the prolific pollution of the bay, from the numerous
sawmills, pulp mills, refineries, and smelting plants that sprung up along its shoreline. Concerns about
this pollution in particular, and its implications for the ecological and human health in the area, led to
the addition of Commencement Bay to the National Priorities List for cleanup under the EPA Superfund
program in the 1980s (Cirone and Coco 1993).
Preliminary assessments were performed, and large concentrations of contaminants in sediment were
identified. The EPA identified a 12-mile area of Tacoma and Commencement Bay as a Superfund site.
Major threats and contaminants in the bay came from the Asarco Smelter (arsenic, cadmium, copper,
and lead), Tacoma Tar Pits (tar contaminants), and shipbuilding and oil refining activities that
contaminated the tide flats (USEPA 2007).
In addition to the EPA’s efforts to force responsible parties to commit to cleanup, since 1988, the
Washington Department of Ecology has spent $58 million on the clean-up of Commencement Bay
(WDOE 2008). Multiple private organizations, most notably Citizens for a Healthy Bay, have also taken
an interest in advocating the protection of the waters of Commencement Bay. Cleanup efforts have
been responsible for some regions of the Bay being delisted from the EPA National Priorities List. But
the true scope of the damage is so extensive that the work to restore the Bay to a pristine ecological
condition is just beginning. With continued legislation and cleanup efforts, perhaps someday
Commencement Bay can be restored to the beauty and vitality it once had.
The most recognizable and regionally and culturally important species that was affected by the changes
to Commencement Bay and the delta is the Chinook salmon, especially juveniles. Juvenile salmon need
shallow, tranquil nearshore waters when they undergo the transition between a freshwater and a
saltwater habitat. Because of the dredging and channelizing of the tributaries of the Puyallup River,
juvenile salmon have far less suitable habitat for efficient maturation and eventual return for spawning.
At a young age, salmon are also susceptible to predation as well as sensitivity to sediment
contamination. Because they are undergoing a sensitive transition, they are less resistant to the toxins
that have accumulated in the nearshore sediments of Commencement Bay (Stehr et al 1999). In the
study done by Stehr and a group of researchers from the National Marine Fisheries Service in 1999, it
was found that the concentrations of contaminants in juvenile salmon were high enough to cause
extensive biological injury. This suggests that there is still much work to be done in the waterways that
salmon use in their spawning.
Commencement Bay is one of the most important western ports of the United States. It provides an
environment not only for human industry, but for many native species that are essential to the
preservation of the Puget Sound ecosystem. Due to humans altering the landscape and a lack of
knowledge of the consequences of extensive pollution, the Bay is now in need of human alteration
again: in the form of restoration and cleanup. Hopefully, our current and continuing knowledge about
the delicate state of marine and estuarine ecosystems will allow Commencement Bay to return to a
semblance of the environment it was; and hopefully, even with human expansion, it can remain a
productive ecosystem, as it was for thousands of years.
References Cited
Cirone, P. and M. Coco. 1993. The lessons of Commencement Bay. EPA Journal 19:33.
Simenstad, C.A. 2000. Commencement Bay aquatic ecosystem assessment: ecosystem-scale restoration
for juvenile salmon recovery. Prepared for City of Tacoma, Washington Department of Natural
Resources, and US Environmental Protection Agency. SoF-UW-2003. Available from:
https://digital.lib.washington.edu/xmlui/handle/1773/4558
Stehr, C.M., Brown, D.W., Hom, T., Anulacion, B.F., Reichert, W.L. and T.K. Collier. 1999. Exposure of
juvenile chinook and chum salmon to chemical contaminants in the Hylebos Waterway of
Commencement Bay, Tacoma, Washington. Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Stress and Recovery B:215227.
[USEPA] United States Environmental Protection Agency. Updated February 2007, accessed April 2009.
Commencement Bay Nearshore/Tideflats: Site Description. Available from:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/nplpad.nsf/e144fa5b179a8a0388256365007ef6eb/06e1c0cda0d11fc2852
56594007559fd?OpenDocument
[WDOE] Washington Department of Ecology. Updated December 2008, accessed April 2009. News
Release: Commencement Bay Effort Benefits Environment and Economy. Available from:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2008news/2008-319.html
Images compiled by Travis Irving from
University of Washington Libraries. Accessed June 2009. Digital Collections: Tacoma. Available from:
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=any&CISOFIELD1=title&CISOROOT=/wastate&CI
SOBOX1=Tacoma