Gas Works to stay open despite pollution work

Bands will play on at Seattle's Gas Works Park despite pollution control work at the former industrial site.

Environmental inspectors will begin drilling holes around the park located at the north end of Lake Union Monday to test for tar contamination left behind by a long-closed coal-to-gas production plant. But the park will remain open and events will continue during the work, which will take place Monday through Friday until Sept. 27.

Seattle Peace Concerts coordinator Don Glenn said his phone has been ringing since the tests were announced earlier this month. Many fans worried the last concert of the year -- scheduled to run from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23 -- had been canceled because of the cleanup.

Glenn said Seattle Parks and Recreation Department officials have assured him the show may go on.

A free concert series now in its 27th year, Seattle Peace Concerts takes donations of food for Northwest Harvest.

"Basically, they're to remind people that we're all made out of the same stardust," Glenn said. "We're all family here on this earth, and we need to take care of each other."

Performers at the Gas Works concert will include The Feelings Hijackers -- a band featuring members of the Presidents of the United States of America -- and Jimi Hendrix's brother Leon Hendrix, as well as other performers.

The drilling is the first step in an effort to locate and ultimately remove pockets of tar buried at the park that occasionally bubble to the surface. The residual pollution at the park was entombed when after the gas plant was shut down. It had operated at the site from 1906 to 1956.

Test results should be available within two months, officials say. A cleanup plan is expected to be made public in about a year.