It’s the cleanup that seems to never end.
The federal government announced Feb. 1, 2000, that Rayonier’s “moderately contaminated” Port Angeles pulp mill site was not dirty enough to warrant cleanup as a Superfund site — and therefore could be decommissioned by the state Department of Ecology.
Back in 2000, it was estimated a federal Superfund cleanup would be completed by 2009 — but that the “faster, more efficient” Washington state program could do it by 2004 or 2005.
Ironically, 2009 was state Ecology Director Jay Manning’s latest estimate for state cleanup, but he abandoned even that last week.
Once the biggest private employer in Clallam and Jefferson counties, the pulp mill closed on March 1, 1997.
What’s left today is a four-acre dock, scattered facilities, a flattened mass of metal from buildings and machinery long ago torn down and sold for scrap — and pockets of PCBs, dioxins, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead and other contaminants.
Still owned by Rayonier, which is paying for the cleanup, the 75-acre site is also the largest available waterfront property on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Here’s what’s been said on when the mill site would be clean and ready for new development:
* By 2006 — Rayonier Environmental Affairs Director Dana Dolloff on Oct. 24, 2001.
* By 2007 — then-Ecology Director Linda Hoffman on Nov. 19, 2004.
* By 2009 — Manning on March 30.
* No realistic cleanup timeline now exists — Manning on Thursday.
Why has the cleanup taken so long?
Here’s what officials said Thursday and Friday:
* Dolloff: “We didn’t realize how difficult it would be to deal with what are essentially two regulatory agencies, Ecology and the [Lower Elwha Klallam] tribe.”
* Laurie Davies, Ecology’s solid waste manager for the cleanup:
“It took awhile for [Rayonier, the tribe and Ecology] to figure our relationship and how we would work together.”
Says Manning: “I am prepared to impose timelines and deadlines on Rayonier, and when that happens, it will move the project along.”
He added: “There need to be deadlines for us and the tribe as well as Rayonier.”
* Francis Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam tribal chair:
“There have been a number of issues with regulations and federal and state guidelines.
“One of the things we are concerned about is with the sampling formulas being implemented in the Strait.”
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Paul Gottlieb is the Commentary Page editor for the Peninsula Daily News; 360-417-3536, e-mail paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
