John Dodge has the story, including a helpful timeline, in the Olympian:
OLYMPIA – The return of public access to a portion of South Sound’s most costly and complicated hazardous-waste site was celebrated Friday at the tip of the Port of Olympia peninsula.
About 40 people associated with the Cascade Pole cleanup gathered to officially open to the public a 640-foot shoreline trail and a nearly 4-acre parking lot for cars and boat trailers using the nearby Swantown Marina boat launch.
The paved area sits on top of about 32,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments that were dredged from the near shore area of Budd Inlet in 2001 and placed in a clay-lined bathtub 15 years after the Cascade Pole plant was abandoned. The plant left a legacy of pollution that has cost $26 million in studies and cleanup.
