PORT ANGELES — A council tasked with creating a habitat restoration plan for facilities on Port Angeles Harbor, including the Rayonier pulp mill site — and work with those held responsible for the damage — will conduct its first meeting Monday, April 23.
Federal, state and tribal natural resource trustees have signed a formal agreement to jointly conduct natural resource damage assessment within the harbor, according to a statement the trustees released Wednesday.
“It’s now official,” said Linda Kent, state Department of Ecology spokeswoman.
“The memorandum of agreement formalizes what has been said all along” and opens the door for the first meeting of the trustees, Kent said.
The Natural Resource Damages Assessment Council is made up of Ecology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Gamble S’Klallam tribes.
Each of the six trustees has designated representatives to the trustee council.
Compensation for harm
The federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act is the law that authorizes the federal government, states and tribes to act as trustees and seek compensation on behalf of the public for harm to natural resources, which are described as “injuries.”
Any “potentially responsible parties,” or PRPs, would share in the responsibility for funding restoration activities, under the terms of the act.
The process, known as the NRDA process, could take years.
Rayonier Inc. initiated the NRDA process last year, according to NOAA staff.
The city of Port Angeles will not have a seat on the panel — something the City Council, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and Port Angeles Business Association had sought — but will be involved after damages have been assessed, Kent said.
Draft plan
When they meet later this month, trustees will begin work on a draft damage assessment and restoration plan, which will include but won’t be limited to the former mill site owned by Rayonier at the north end of Ennis Street on the Port Angeles Harbor.
Kent did not know where or what time the meeting would be and had no agenda listing details of the meeting.
She said it would not be open to the public.
The council will operate by consensus — including authorizing releases of information to the public, Kent said.
The draft plan eventually is expected to be offered for public comment.
Kent said she did not know when the draft plan would be completed.
“It will likely take several months to assess damages,” Kent said. “Then they can start work on a restoration plan.
“It’s a long process. . . . It’s not possible to predict a hard-and-fast time line.”
The assessment process is separate from the environmental cleanup of Port Angeles Harbor, which has been an Ecology project since 2000.
“Over time, many different activities likely contributed to contamination of the harbor,” the joint statement said.
“There is evidence that this contamination harmed natural resources and supporting habitats such as the subtidal, shoreline, estuary and upland areas of the site.”
Study of harbor
A $1.5 million study of the harbor that Ecology released earlier this year found that areas of relatively high concentrations of pollution in the sediments of Port Angeles Harbor may come from a variety of sources.
The study found relatively high concentrations of metals, phthalates, phenols, PCBs, zinc, polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins around the Rayonier site on the east side of the harbor, which is contaminated with toxins generated during the site’s 68 years as a mill — now dismantled — that transformed wood to pulp.
The Ecology study also found metals, phthalates, mercury and dioxins near Nippon Paper Industries USA, while elevated levels of phthalates, phenols, zinc, PCBs and metals were found near the Boat Haven.