Last updated: September 2024

City of Arcata: ECRG Summit Speaker Spotlight

The City of Arcata is one of five grantees who will share their community’s story of ECRG transformation at the CALRC ECRG Summit. The City pursued and was granted an ECRG Round 2 Site-Specific Investigation Grant for $399,235 for Butcher Slough. The bay-front site is adjacent to a number of affordable housing communities, the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Humboldt Bay Trail, soon to be complete between Arcata and Eureka.

From 1942 to 1981, a series of lumber mills operated along the shore of Humboldt Bay in the Northern California city of Arcata. The nonprofit Humboldt Baykeeper conducted testing on the site in 2018, which identified potentially high levels of dioxins. This led the City to pursue an EPA Targeted Brownfields Assessment (TBA), which identified petroleum hydrocarbon, dioxin and other contamination in this sensitive ecological area.

The City, which has a median income that is nearly half the state average, pursued ECRG funding that will cover costs related to more targeted sampling, a Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment, and the preparation of a site cleanup plan. Additionally, the grant will provide funds to hold two community workshops to inform the community about the purpose of the project and invite participation in the analysis of clean up alternatives. While the area currently provides passive recreation and wildlife viewing opportunities for the community, once restored, the site will provide higher quality ecological habitat and accessible trails for the entire community.