PORT ANGELES — State Department of Ecology staffers will present their new draft cleanup agreement with Rayonier Inc. — an agreement they say will give the delayed project a new kick start — at an open house today.
The agreement, which contains a new three-year timeline for the creation of a cleanup plan for the 75-acre site on the Port Angeles waterfront that Rayonier owns, already has received a less-than-enthusiastic response from the city and others already frustrated by a project that has been in Ecology’s hands for 10 years and still lacks a definite end date.
Last week, the Port Angeles City Council passed a resolution protesting the timeline out of concern that it will hinder efforts to put Rayonier’s former mill site under public ownership, including the large tank that city officials say they need to comply with environmental mandates regarding sewer overflows.
Ecology staff, some of whom will be at today’s meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Port Angeles Senior Center, 328 E. Seventh St., say they are aware of the growing frustration.
“Ecology is keenly aware the community’s patience with the cleanup has worn thin,” Ecology spokeswoman Kim Schmanke wrote in an e-mail to the Peninsula Daily News in response to the city resolution.
“But there’s no way to condense the three years of work down to meet the city or Harbor-Works’ needs by this August.”
August is the deadline Harbor-Works, chartered with directing the redevelopment of the waterfront site and assisting in its cleanup, set for itself to decide whether to acquire the property.
The date is not arbitrary, since the city says it needs to “secure the site” through Harbor-Works by the end of summer in order to meet a deadline, set by Ecology, for getting control of its sewer overflows.
Along with the City Council, Harbor-Works Executive Director Jeff Lincoln also has expressed concern that the timeline, which has longer deadlines than previously expected, will make property acquisition more difficult.
Last summer, when Ecology started negotiating the agreement with Rayonier, it was aiming for a deadline of two years to develop a cleanup plan and an agreement to be completed by Thanksgiving. The draft was completed last month.
Ecology staff say the agreement, once signed by the state agency, will resolve delays with the cleanup by giving Rayonier deadlines for all the work it needs to complete, and outlines a 1,400-acre study area where both parties agree cleanup will occur.
The study area includes the 75-acre property and adjacent marine sediment.
At the same time, Ecology staffers say they can’t estimate how long cleanup will take until a plan can be drafted.
While Rayonier is given deadlines they are legally required to meet, the agreement is not as strict on Ecology.
The agreement lists time frames the state agency will aim to meet, but there are no penalties if it doesn’t.
Still, despite previous delays, the regional toxics cleanup program head said that she and her staff intend to meet their timeframes.
“We’re absolutely committed to that schedule,” said Rebecca Lawson, Ecology toxics cleanup program regional manager.
Melissa Rourke, the assistant attorney general with the state Attorney General’s Office who helped draft the document, said it’s typical for such cleanup agreements to not legally require the state agency to meet the time frames.
Rourke said the state’s concern with legally requiring Ecology to meet them is that it may find that it doesn’t have enough time available to adequately review the work that has been done by the company responsible for the cleanup.
“The agency’s charge is to make sure that the contaminated site protects human health and it needs to have sufficient time to evaluate deliverables that come in,” she said.
While the agreement may not be ideal for the city or Harbor-Works, it doesn’t prohibit the public development authority from purchasing the property, becoming a partner in its cleanup, restoring Ennis Creek, or allowing the city to build the infrastructure needed for using the 5-million gallon tank, Ecology staff say.
Lawson also said that the agreement as drafted does provide enough “flexibility” for Ecology to OK a portion of the property to be cleaned up to allow it to be redeveloped before a final a cleanup plan for the site is approved.
“The [property] can be completed by a series of smaller actions that could incorporate some redevelopment,” she said.
But Lawson added Friday that she would not support doing that with the entire property since she thinks it would further slow the cleanup process.
“I would not be comfortable with . . . a parcel by parcel cleanup,” she said.
Until Rayonier fills in some “data gaps” with its sampling of the property, which it must do to comply with the new agreement, Lawson said she can’t say how much more work needs to be done to allow the 75 acres to be redeveloped.
To date, Rayonier has removed 25,000 tons of contaminated soil. Lawson called it “substantial” but couldn’t say if most of the cleanup on the property itself has been completed.
The site at the end of Ennis Street in Port Angeles has pockets of toxic contamination from a pulp mill that was operated there for 68 before it was closed in 1997.
Harbor-Works was created by the city with the port’s support in May 2008, to acquire the mill site still owned by Rayonier Inc. and redevelop the property, as well as assist in the environmental cleanup of the land, which has been overseen by the state Department of Ecology, in partnership with Rayonier and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, since 2000.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.