The dock at Tramp Harbor, beloved by generations of islanders for fishing, photography and bird watching, was dealt another blow last week in what could ultimately lead to its demise.

The deteriorating pilings that have raised the dock above Puget Sound for decades contain contaminating creosote, but have long escaped replacement due to high costs and stalled bargaining with the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Now, negotiations over a lease agreement with the state have reached a crossroads.

At a Vashon Park District meeting last week, Executive Director Elaine Ott-Rocheford shared that both the district’s attorney and insurance broker had advised against signing a new proposed lease for the state tidelands underneath a 160-foot portion of the dock, which the district owns, as the risks for the district would not be manageable.

Their recommendations followed the news she had delivered at an earlier board meeting this month that the DNR had rejected all modifications the park district proposed to the agreement.

Board chair Bob McMahon expressed his frustration about the state of the dock — nearly a dozen pilings are known to be in poor condition — compounded by the difficult and limited options the district has to intervene.

“You’re totally stuck no matter what you do; you end up with an unsafe facility that we can’t let people go on, and so it’s got to be removed — which we can’t afford to do,” he said. “We’re screwed no matter what we do.”

Ott-Rocheford said that she will be looking to Olympia for help with funds, but as renewing the lease would undoubtedly burden the district, all outcomes pointed to the dock coming down. She added that the district’s attorney indicated that the proposed lease makes the district responsible for all liability associated with the dock’s hazardous materials — the creosote leaching from the pilings — as well as the liability associated with the use of the dock and for its removal if the lease expires or terminates.

The district’s insurance broker, meanwhile, considers the environmental contamination akin to a preexisting condition, rendering the dock uninsurable. Additionally, under the latest proposed lease, the district must also agree to fully protect DNR from nearly every kind of liability, a stipulation the district’s insurance broker said amounted to contractual liability and was an added factor in his recommendation.

A lease between the district and DNR is required in order for the far half of the 340-foot dock — including the platform at the end of the walkway — to remain standing over state tidelands. Without an agreement, it must be removed. The previous agreement lapsed in 2013 and while DNR has not set a formal deadline for the district to act, the pressure is becoming harder to ignore.

“I’m hoping that the state is going to pay for this,” Ott-Rocheford said at the most recent meeting, adding that DNR had informed her construction funds for removing the dock may be available later in the year.

If the state is unable to compensate for the removal of the dock, it will be the responsibility of the park district to take it down, a cost Ott-Rocheford estimated to be $250,000.

On the phone, Ott-Rocheford reiterated that the board has not made an official decision yet as to whether or not commissioners would approve signing the lease or closing out the agreement. But she acknowledged that time is running out for the portion of the dock in contention with the state.

“One way or another, it’s obvious that this part of the structure of the dock must come down. That’s a given.”

For now, Ott-Rocheford said that it is up to the board to further discuss if the liability is reasonable enough to warrant taking on the lease.

Greg Rabourn, who is responsible for safeguarding habitat on Vashon and Maury Islands as the watershed steward for King County, said that the pilings are not the only harm the dock is causing to the ecosystem. Light is not sufficiently able to pass through the decking, and as a result, can jeopardize young salmon and other aquatic life.

“It impacts eelgrass, alters habitat, there’s less food there for juvenile salmon, and when they avoid going under the dock, it forces them to go out to deeper water where they can be eaten by bigger fish,” he said.

A modern dock would need to be built with metal gratings that allow for the passage of light to reduce shading, as well as steel or concrete pilings that would eliminate the need for treated wood. Rabourn explained that as the pilings at Tramp Harbor continue to degrade, the contamination may reach far into the food web and could have a catastrophic impact on life great and small.

“These little persistent chunks of creosote just get smaller and smaller and mix into the sediment, where they have the opportunity to provide more damage to spawning forage fish eggs or find other pathways into shellfish,” he said.

Calling the Tramp Harbor dock an asset to the community, Rabourn said he is hopeful for grant funding to either upgrade or replace the existing dock in a way that benefits wildlife and the community.

“Solving problems [facing Puget Sound] takes one step at a time, making all these improvements. As they all add up, then you get these meaningful changes,” he said. “Many islanders want the dock, but want to see the dock upgraded also so that it’s more current with environmental standards.”

Rabourn added that one such example already exists on the island — the Quartermaster Yacht Club dock, which was rebuilt to meet those standards in 2014.

Matt Penning, the vice commodore of the club, said that the original dock was built by club members long before county building codes had set any specifications.

“There’s always been a lot of do-it-yourself engineer type people here,” he said. “People with boats, they tend to like to do everything exactly right because if you’re in a boat you don’t want to be dead in the water.”

After years of wear, the dock was deemed beyond salvage and in need of replacement, though Penning said that members were resistant to the idea at first. The project was a significant investment for the club, but now all of the pilings are galvanized steel rather than wood. State code also required that at least half of the decking needed to include open grating.

Dave Bennett, a spokesperson for the Washington Department of Ecology (WDOE) said collaboration with DNR to remove the Tramp Harbor dock may be one avenue worth exploring further.

“This is the type of work that we do,” he said. “This is our bread and butter, and so it wouldn’t be unheard of.”

Bennett added that the territory was not unfamiliar. With funding from several sources, the department led a cleanup of Bellingham Bay in partnership with DNR that included the removal of a large number of pilings there. He said that with restoration, the area is now a productive shellfish bed.

But in the case of the Tramp Harbor dock, he cautioned that DNR would have to solicit WDOE before the agency became involved, pending a decision by the park district and a mutual understanding by all parties of what steps would need to be taken at the site if the lease should be closed out.

“The tidelands, and anything driven into underwater ground, is the purview of DNR, and there would definitely need to be a partnership there,” he said.

Randy Smith, conservation chair for the Vashon Audubon Society, said the organization helped designate Tramp Harbor dock as an important birding location in Puget Sound — it is earmarked in the state Audubon’s birding trail map.

“It’s one of about five really special spots on the island for birds, and it’s recorded, and it’s on the map,” he said. “We’d be sorry if it wasn’t there as an access point to view the birds.”

For her part, Ott-Rocheford said she understands that the dock is admired by many and has a deep connection to island history. She is asking the community to hold on.

“I haven’t given up hope, and I’m committed to doing my best to do the right thing for the district, and the right thing for the community as well, in terms of preserving an asset that the community has determined is important and having a facility that meets their needs,” she said.