PA, Port may form harbor cleanup authority
By Brian Gawley, Peninsula Daily News
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The three Port of Port Angeles commissioners will join the City Council in a work session on the topic in the council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St., at 6 p.m.
The council is expected to consider adopting an ordinance creating the public development authority that night.
Public development authorities do not have the power of eminent domain or the authority to levy taxes, according to the Seattle law firm of Preston Gates and Ellis.
City Manager Mark Madsen and City Attorney Bill Bloor were busy Friday afternoon finalizing the memo to be included in the council's meeting agenda.
Documents to be reviewed at the meeting will include a resolution declaring cooperation between the city and port for the Port Angeles Harbor cleanup being done by the state Department of Ecology.
They will include a formal agreement between the city and port, and an ordinance creating the public development authority and its governing charter.
A City Council memo says that the port commissioners also will adopt the resolution, but the port gave no notice of possible action at the Tuesday meeting.
Independent entity
The public development authority would be a public corporation, chartered by city, that would be an independent entity governed by a board of directors appointed by the City Council.
According to the memo, the agreement will describe how the port and city will work together, sponsor a public development authority and authorize it specific powers spelled out in state law.
Mayor Gary Braun said on Saturday that he hadn't read the memo detailing the agreement yet, and couldn't comment on it.
Port Commissioner George Schoenfeldt on Saturday would say only, "It's going to be good for the community. You'll hear about it on Tuesday."
History of cleanup
In January, eight years after it began, the cleanup of the 75-acre Rayonier property at 700 S. Ennis St. was transferred from Ecology's solid waste section to its toxics cleanup section.
The transfer meant that project would receive more funding, manpower and expertise than at any time since Ecology took it over from the federal Environmental Protection Agency in February 2000 — sharing responsibility for the project with Rayonier and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
It also meant that Ecology would expand its scope beyond cleaning up the dioxins, PCBs and other toxins generated during the site's 68 years as a mill — now dismantled — that transformed wood to pulp.
In addition to a comprehensive sampling of contaminants in Port Angeles Harbor, the revitalized Rayonier cleanup project will include sampling the uplands area of the site and off-property sites in Port Angeles.
The cleanup project also will include a city program, begun in April 2007, that focuses on future uses of the Rayonier property.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-417-3532 or brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: May 18. 2008 9:00PM