PORT TOWNSEND — Aberdeen-based Quigg Bros. towed into Port Townsend Bay on Wednesday a crane barge that, with another barge, will remove about 1,200 creosote-tainted pilings along the shores of East Jefferson County during the next three months.

“Already, we have pulled about 4,200 tons or material from the [Olympic] Peninsula. This is just a continuation of that,” said Doug Sutherland, state commissioner of public lands, adding that he plans to visit the work site some time next month, and campaign in Port Townsend in October.

Sutherland is running in the Nov. 4 general election to keep his seat overseeing the state Department of Natural Resources. Resources’ aquatic lands division is overseeing the pilings removal project.

Creosote, a distillate of coal tar often containing more than 300 chemicals, was used as a wood preservative during much of the past century for such things as telephone poles, railroad ties, piers, docks and floats.

Chemicals in treated wood materials, such as those on beaches or old dock pilings, can be harmful and even toxic to marine species, say Resources officials.

Quigg Bros. anchored its 120-foot crane barge near Port of Port Townsend’s Boat Haven Marina, just outside the jetty, on Wednesday, to dismantle the so-called transfer station, where freight was once taken from trains and transferred to ships.

A stretch of the old railroad trestle and other pilings will be removed from the shore fronting the port’s ship yard and a stretch of Larry Scott Memorial Trail.

Quigg Bros. removed pilings in Port Angeles Harbor in early 2007.

Caicos Corp. last year pulled dolphin pilings fronting the old Quincy ferry dock downtown.