In 1984, Washington began capping the Seattle landfill under Gas Works Park; decades later, herons nested beside rusting towers on the old coal gas plant

In 1984, Seattle temporarily closed parts of Gas Works Park after investigations found elevated concentrations of industrial contaminants in the soil sediment. Following this, clean soil was placed over the most contaminated areas before the park reopened later that year. The incident marked a new chapter in the history of the Lake Union site, where a former manufactured-gas plant had been turned into a public park without removing most of its towering industrial structures. Decades later, while the towers remained the park’s defining landmarks, the restored landscape around them supported birds and other urban wildlife.

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