McKinley, a Mexico-based company, said they would begin operations at the paper mill in 2017.
Then they said 2018, and then September 2019.
Now they say December 31, 2019.
And, by the way, in 2017, they applied for an exemption to the wastewater pollution check, too.
According to the PDN, they currently employ only 14 people.
They said last month that they planned to immediately hire 15, but they have not said that they’ll ever employ more than 120 people in our town of 20,000.
And even that’s maybe, someday.
The state Ecology department has granted them preliminary approval to increase air pollution.
Ecology has told us about every two years that they need two more years to come up with a plan to make Rayonier finish cleaning up the toxic waste they left on the other side of our harbor 23 years ago.
Letting McKinley pollute our air even more will harm all who live and work here in four key ways: increase risk of respiratory disease and cancer to residents — any increased risk is too much; decrease success of our downtown businesses and the waterfront development plan; lower property values for anyone who owns a home or business property in Port Angeles; and lessen the enjoyment of the outdoors and quality of life of all who live, work, and visit Port Angeles.
Haven’t we learned the lesson from what Rayonier did to Port Angeles? Let’s not let it happen again.
Judith Broadhurst,
Port Angeles