PORT ANGELES — The city once again will tap a private environmental consultant for help in reviewing data produced during study of toxins in the western portion of Port Angeles Harbor.
City Council members voted 4-1 Tuesday — with Councilman Max Mania opposed, Mayor Cherie Kidd abstaining and Councilwoman Brooke Nelson absent — to approve an $89,000 amendment to the city’s contract with Integral Consulting Inc., the third budgeted amendment since the city originally drew up a contract with Integral in March 2012.
Mania had asked earlier in the meeting that the amendment be pulled from the consent agenda so it could be voted on separately.
In casting his vote, Mania said he has been uncomfortable with the degree to which the legal aspects of the study and harbor cleanup efforts have been discussed by council members and city staff in executive sessions.
“If it results in a clean harbor, I don’t think anyone is against that,” Mania said at the meeting.
“I just wish we had done it in a manner that was more transparent.”
The state Department of Ecology has named the city, the Port of Port Angeles, Georgia-Pacific LLC, Nippon Paper Industries USA and forest services company Merrill & Ring as at least partially responsible for removing potentially harmful substances, such as heavy metals, found in the sediment lining the bottom of the western portion of Port Angeles Harbor.
After completing sediment study reports in 2008 and 2012, Ecology determined the contaminants were the result of past industrial wood-processing activity and untreated stormwater and wastewater flowing into the harbor from the city’s combined sewer outfalls.
In May, City Council members signed off on a legal document called an agreed order that lays out how the city will work with the port and the three private companies to determine the best way to clean up the western part of the harbor.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Kidd said she abstained from the vote because she felt Ecology was forcing the city to put its taxpayers in a critical financial position.
“I appreciate the hard work staff is doing to make the best of this, but I’m just saying that to me, this is taxation without representation,” Kidd said.
The amendment brings the total, not-to-exceed amount that the city has been authorized to pay Integral to $289,000.
City Attorney Bill Bloor said the amendment will pay for any assistance the city might need from Integral in working through the process of studying toxins found in the harbor and figuring out the best way to remove them — the remedial investigation and feasibility study process.
As of April 30, the city has paid Integral $196,273 for consulting and analysis work tied to the investigation and study efforts, Bloor said.
This money paid for Integral’s role in analyzing Ecology’s 2012 harbor study on behalf of the city and for helping the city develop the agreed order with the four other entities involved.
City Manager Dan McKeen said these city funds have been budgeted as part of the estimated $1 million the city expects to pay for the entire investigation and study.
In addition to city funds, McKeen said Ecology has earmarked a $400,000 grant to help pay for the work, and the city has a number of pending liability insurance claims that could provide additional funds.
Last fall, the city instituted a 30-month surcharge on residents’ utility bills — between $4.15 and $4.50 monthly per household — to pay for the harbor cleanup study.
“It is our hope that we will minimize the impact to our residents and delete the surcharge sooner than expected,” McKeen said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Bloor said the total cost of cleaning the harbor has not yet been figured out, adding that the completed remedial investigation and feasibility study, or RI/FS, will help determine how the cleanup should proceed.
“The cleanup action would be determined on the basis of the RI/FS, [and] until we know what the cleanup action is, we won’t know what the cost of it is,” Bloor said.
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
