Peninsula Daily News
OLYMPIA — The state Department of Ecology has extended the public comment period on draft cleanup plans for two sites on Port Gamble Bay on the Kitsap Peninsula.
Ecology extended the comment period because of requests from the public for additional review time. The comment period will end April 28.
Ecology is working with property owners, area tribes and state agencies to shape cleanups at the two sites.
Sawmill
The former Pope & Talbot Inc. sawmill at the mouth of Port Gamble Bay, on the east end of Northeast View Drive, that was operated from 1853 to 1995 released such pollutants as petroleum hydrocarbons, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals into soil, groundwater and marine sediments around the site.
Wood waste also littered the marine sediments and the bed of Port Gamble Bay.
Ecology, Pope Resources and Olympic Property Group have entered into a cleanup agreement.
Some cleanup work was done between 2002 and 2007. That work removed about 26,000 tons of soil and 31,000 cubic yards of wood debris from in-water sediments at the site.
Proposed work includes a combination of soil removal, in-water dredging, removing pilings and other structures, monitoring and installing controls to stop contamination from spreading.
In 1985, Pope & Talbot transferred ownership of the uplands and adjacent tidelands to Pope Resources.
Later, Olympic Property Group — a Pope Resources subsidiary — began operating and managing these lands.
Leased area
Ecology is leading work on the Port Gamble Leased Area at the southwest end of the bay as part of a baywide cleanup project.
The area includes the central bay, parts of the eastern shoreline and two areas along the southwest shoreline.
These two areas include property that Pope & Talbot leased from the state Department of Natural Resources from 1974 to 1995 and a former log transfer facility.
Activities at these areas deposited wood waste on the bed of Port Gamble Bay.
Ecology proposes using ongoing, natural processes to contain or reduce contamination in sediment over time. In some locations, long-term monitoring would be in place for up to 20 years.
‘Early-action’ cleanup
Ecology identified Port Gamble Bay as a high-priority, “early-action” cleanup area under the Puget Sound Initiative.
The documents can be viewed on Ecology’s toxics cleanup program website, http://tinyurl.com/3e6s3hr; at the Poulsbo Public Library, 700 N.E. Lincoln Road; or by appointment at Ecology headquarters, 300 S.E. Desmond Drive, Lacey. Email Carol.Dorn@ecy.wa.gov or phone 360-407-7224.
Comments
Comments can be mailed to Kevin MacLachlan, site manager, Washington Department of Ecology, Toxics Cleanup Program, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600, or emailed to Kevin.MacLachlan@ecy.wa.gov.