State spends $500K to clean debris from McNeil Island

MCNEIL ISLAND, Wash. (AP) – Washington is spending $500,000 to remove 100-year-old debris from an island in south Puget Sound.

KING-TV reports Washington State Department of Natural Resources Restoration Manager Monica Shoemaker is part of a state coalition that’s removed more than 1,000 tons of concrete, creosote-soaked pilings, scrap metal, and discarded bricks from McNeil Island’s shoreline.

Shoemaker says the $500,000 project should result in improved conditions for aquatic wildlife.

McNeil Island in Pierce County once had a school, prison, lumber mill and homes.

Now the only residents on the six-square-mile (15.5-square-kilometer) island are the 200 sex offenders living in a special state facility.

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Information from: KING-TV, http://www.king5.com/