PORT ANGELES — The time line for the Rayonier cleanup has been pushed back by another year.
The state Department of Ecology is now requiring Rayonier Inc. to have a cleanup plan for its former mill site finished in December 2014 rather than the end of 2013.
The cause is both the long-delayed release of Ecology’s Port Angeles Harbor pollution study and a two-month extension of its public comment period, said Rebecca Lawson, regional manager for Ecology’s toxics cleanup program.
The $1.5 million study, released last month, was initially expected to be finished in 2009, a year after samples were taken.
That was delayed due to disagreements with Ecology’s contractor over the extent of the study, Lawson said.
Ecology has long been criticized for the slow-moving Rayonier cleanup effort.
“I know some people think this just keeps going on forever,” Lawson acknowledged.
“This [the harbor study] is a significant body of work.”
The delay of that study affects Rayonier’s time line because it must use the study’s findings to come up with a plan for cleaning up 1,325 acres of harbor sediment near its former mill.
“Their time line doesn’t start ticking until we get the report,” Lawson said.
She estimated that the harbor study should become final in July.
That’s about four to five months later than listed in Ecology’s agreed order with Rayonier, signed in 2010.
The delay wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Lawson estimated when the harbor study was released that the time line would be pushed back by about six months.
Last week, Ecology also decided to extend the study’s comment period from 30 to 90 days, causing further delay.
The extension was done at the request of the city of Port Angeles, Port of Port Angeles and Olympic Environmental Council who wanted more time to review the extensive document.
“I think that’s necessary because people need time” to review it, Lawson said.
“It does no good if we rush our way through.”
The 75-acre property, the largest undeveloped waterfront parcel on the North Olympic Peninsula, became an Ecology cleanup site in 2000 due to concentrations of petroleum, metals, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and pesticides.
The mill closed in 1997.
Lawson attributed past delays to disagreements between Rayonier and Ecology over the extent of the cleanup site, settled in the meantime with the signing of the agreed order, and the project previously being handled by the agency’s solid waste division, rather than toxics cleanup.
Toxics cleanup took it over in November 2007.
When asked about the project’s delays, Lawson emphasized the positive.
“We’re more on the same page now,” she said, referring to Ecology and Rayonier.
“A lot is happening, and we are working very productively on Rayonier.”
Lawson said the harbor study is the biggest report done to date as part of the cleanup effort.
She didn’t discount the possibility of additional delays but said they likely would not be as extensive.
“We want to get through this as quickly as possible,” Lawson said.
“It’s not just about how quickly we can do it,” she added.
“We do need to do it well.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.