The last evidence of lumber yards and plywood mills that once lined the Budd Inlet shoreline near Olympia is being removed as workers pull out pilings and take away docks.

The pilings are soaked with the wood preservative creosote, which is toxic to marine life.

The Olympian reports ( http://bit.ly/X9Ofpw) the work will remove 400 pilings and 7,000 square feet of abandoned docks and piers along 1.2 miles of south Puget Sound shoreline. The land is owned by the Port of Olympia, Squaxin Island Tribe, private landowners and state Department of Natural Resources

The $278,000 project is federally funded as part of Puget Sound cleanup work.

The department says more than 15,000 pilings have been removed since 2004 and the goal is to remove 3,000 more in the next four years.

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Information from: The Olympian, http://www.theolympian.com