PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Ecology expects the stalled environmental cleanup of Rayonier Inc.’s former mill site will be accelerated by a new agreement it drafted this week.
But any changes in momentum may be at least three months away.
The document would define an area that Ecology and Rayonier both agree needs to be cleaned up.
Known as the “study area,” its boundaries include the 75-acre former mill property and a portion of Port Angeles Harbor that extends about a mile northeast from the land.
The Rayonier property is contaminated with pockets of PCBs, dioxin, arsenic and other toxins left by the pulp mill, which operated there for 68 years before closing in 1997.
In 2000, the federal Environmental Protection Agency called the site “moderately contaminated,” perhaps 2 or 3 on a scale of 10.
Disagreements between the two over the issue has been a large hurdle facing the cleanup process, which began in 2000.
But the agreement wouldn’t resolve the issue entirely.
Extent of contamination
Ecology is still in the process of determining the extent of contamination from the mill around Port Angeles.
The agreement would require Rayonier to finish sampling in the study area in order to fill in data gaps, and it combines two previous agreements, signed in 2002 and 2004, that define the company’s responsibilities with cleaning up its contamination.
Once Ecology signs off on the soil and sediment sampling in the study area, likely sometime in the fall 2010, the company would be required to create a cleanup plan.
Cleanup is scheduled to be complete in 2012.
While the proposed agreement is intended to push the cleanup process in the right direction, implementing it probably would take a few months.
Rayonier received a copy of it Wednesday but has 60 days to propose changes before signing it, said Carla Yetter, Rayonier environmental affairs director.
Yetter said it was too early to comment on whether any changes will be proposed.
Rayonier has spent $25 million on interim cleanup actions on the property, said Rayonier CEO Lee Thomas in July.
A few weeks after an agreement is reached, Ecology plans to hold a public comment period on the document for somewhere between 30 and 45 days before approving it, said Ecology spokeswoman Kim Schmanke.
Further agreements with Rayonier would be needed if Ecology concludes that the mill is responsible for contamination outside the study area.
Ecology-funded studies in the harbor and soil away from Rayonier’s property are intended to answer that question.
Ecology now expects to find how much pollution from the mill is in samples it took from harbor sediments in summer 2008 and soil around Port Angeles in fall 2008 early next year.
If pollutants in the samples can be traced back to the mill, Ecology would move to have Rayonier extend cleanup beyond the study area and require the company to reimburse it for the studies.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
