PORT ANGELES — The city will receive up to $230,000 through 2010 from the state Department of Ecology to plan for development of Port Angeles Harbor, with a large focus on Rayonier Inc.’s former pulp mill site.
The agreement with Ecology, approved by the City Council on Tuesday in a 6-0 vote with Deputy Mayor Betsy Wharton absent, provides limited funds to the city for accomplishing eight tasks.
It is intended to complement a 2007 study funded with $50,000 from Ecology on how the community would like to see the former mill site developed.
The agreement is intended to be the second phase of an effort to develop a harbor management plan that would incorporate future use of the harbor, along with environmental cleanup projects supervised by Ecology.
The 2007 study was considered the first phase.
Nathan West, city economic and community development director, said the third and final phase will involve the actual implementation of the harbor management plan after 2010.
Since 2000, Rayonier’s 75-acre former mill site on the east end of Port Angeles Harbor has been an Ecology cleanup site.
The state agency operates in partnership with Rayonier and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, which has an interest because remnants of an ancient Klallam village are buried under some of the property.
The property is contaminated with PCBs, dioxins and other toxic chemicals emitted by a Rayonier pulp mill that operated for 68 years there before closing in 1997. The federal Environmental Protection Agency judged the site 2 or 3 on a scale of 10 for contamination when it decided not to classify it as a Superfund site in 1999.
Since December 2005, the city has offered to assist in the cleanup of the Rayonier property in exchange for getting the tank at no cost.
To do that, the city, along with the Port of Port Angeles, created the Harbor-Works Public Development Authority in May 2008.
The public development authority is chartered with acquiring the Rayonier site or getting control of it through an agreement and directing its cleanup and redevelopment.
Tasks for city
Approval of the agreement Tuesday came just before the City Council approved a $500,000 loan to Harbor-Works.
The money will be used to prepare the public development authority to acquire Rayonier’s property in the mid- to late-2010.
Four of the tasks outlined by Ecology in the agreement specifically involve the 75-acre Rayonier property that sits on the east shore of the harbor.
They are:
• Design of combined sewer overflow project, $75,000.
The agreement says the city will use the funds to “integrate its design” of the project with the redevelopment of the Rayonier property.
The city intends to use Rayonier’s 5-million-gallon tank on the property to store untreated sewage and storm water that would otherwise spill into the harbor during heavy rainfall.
The potential effluent would be drained into the city’s wastewater treatment plant adjacent to the property.
• A long-term agreement with Rayonier for use of the tank, $5,000.
• Evaluation of potential effects of the combined sewer overflow project on cultural artifacts, $30,000.
• Plans for Ennis Creek restoration, $5,000.
The other tasks, totalling $115,000, include addressing public input on harborwide development, revising the city’s municipal code to better handle the redevelopment of environmental cleanup sites, revising the city’s comprehensive plan so that it reflects the city’s plans for the Rayonier property and updating the city’s capital facilities plan to reflect the impact of Rayonier redevelopment on city infrastructure.
West said the public input portion of the agreement may take place in the spring.
“We’re really looking forward to getting good public input to what they want to see in Port Angeles Harbor,” he said.
Negotiations between the city and Ecology over the agreement began about a year ago.
The city initially sought up to $450,000.
Almost all the difference between what the city initially requested and what it will receive will likely go to the Port Angeles Harbor-Works Development Authority in the form of a $200,000 grant for planning the redevelopment of the Rayonier property.
Also at the Tuesday meeting, the City Council approved revising the city’s net metering ordinance to adhere to state laws regarding incentives for electricity customers to produce their own energy.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
