PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Ecology and Rayonier Inc. have settled a lawsuit over interpretation of dioxin cleanup standards at the company’s former pulp mill site on the waterfront.
But the legal action will delay release of an uplands remedial investigation report — required as part of the cleanup process — for as long as three months, from July until October.
“In the settlement, Ecology agreed that Rayonier’s approach was correct under the state’s Model Toxics Control Act,” said Dana Dolloff, Rayonier environmental affairs director.
“We thought it went pretty well — the way we wanted it was the way the settlement turned out,” he said.
The lawsuit was filed Nov. 17 in Thurston County Superior Court by Rayonier Properties LLC against Ecology, director Jay Manning and the state.
It challenged Ecology’s intent to impose dioxin cleanup requirements that Rayonier contended were beyond those already set out in the state’s Model Toxics Control Act.