PORT ANGELES — The period for formal public comment on new dioxin cleanup rules that could affect the Rayonier Inc. property could open in early January, said Dan Koroma of the state Department of Ecology’s toxics cleanup program.
The new cleanup rules lower the amount of permissible dioxin and could affect plans for the cleaning up of Rayonier Inc. property in Port Angeles.
“The process is a little stalled because we’re finalizing the small business environmental impact and the cost-benefit analysis,” Koroma said.
Those analyses are required for a rule amendment or new rule, Koroma said.
“Once those are done, the rule language can be finalized,” he said.
The notice for the public comment period could go out later this month, with the public input process starting in January, Koroma said.
The comment period on a preliminary draft of the rules closed in early August.
Ecology is preparing to change rules for dioxin cleanup levels after settling a lawsuit filed by Rayonier Inc. in November.
The changes to the state’s Model Toxics Control Act will apply to rules establishing cleanup levels for dioxins, PCBs and PAHs.
Rayonier’s lawsuit challenged Ecology’s intent to impose dioxin cleanup requirements at the site of the former Port Angeles pulp mill that the company contended were stricter than those already set out in the state’s Model Toxics Control Act.
The lawsuit also contended that Ecology was trying to enforce “cleanup level and risk calculation guidelines” as a rule, rather than a guideline, without going through the state’s public rule-making process.
The lawsuit’s settlement said if Ecology wanted to apply the stricter cleanup standards, it had to go through a formal rule-making process.
The Rayonier pulp mill closed March 1, 1997.
