PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Ecology is willing to talk about what words will go on warning signs it wants to post along the Waterfront Trail past the site of the former Rayonier pulp mill.
Ecology officials said Friday that the agency “hasn’t ordered signs with any predetermined message” and will work with the state Department of Health, city of Port Angeles, Clallam County and community members on sign language and placement.
The Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce also is sending a letter to Ecology saying that the organization has “grave concerns” about the prior proposed language and offering its own suggestions.
The proposed warning signs — which would tell passers-by about such toxins as PCBs still in the soil of the Rayonier property near Ennis Creek — will be the topic of the Port Angeles Business Association’s Tuesday morning meeting at Joshua’s Restaurant and Lounge, 113 DelGuzzi Drive.
Invited to the meeting will be Darlene Schanfald of the Olympic Environmental Council, Port Angeles City Associate Planner Scott Johns and Olympic Trails Coalition President Chuck Preble.
The no-host breakfast meeting, open to the public, starts at 7:30 a.m.
Interpretive sign
In a July 14 letter to Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty, Ecology Director Jay Manning said an interpretive sign, developed in collaboration with the city and Rayonier Inc., was installed when the trail section opened.
But that sign now is outdated and new signs are needed, Manning said in the letter.
“We are being responsive to community concerns about the signage at the site,” he said.
“Community members have made a strong case that trail users should be made aware when they are walking near a hazardous waste cleanup site.”
Manning acknowledges that there is “not a public health hazard” from walking on the trail, but “the public has the right to know of the hazardous waste cleanup — and the basic precautions that can help reduce exposure to contaminants on-site, however minimal, by reducing trespass.”
The letter describes posting the signs as “a simple and prudent measure” to inform the public how to avoid exposure to contaminants in the environment.
The Rayonier Inc. pulp mill closed March 1, 1997. The 75-acre property is in the fifth year of a cleanup project supervised by Ecology, Rayonier and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
The site still has low levels of dioxins, PCBs and other toxins generated over 68 years as a mill — now dismantled — that transformed wood to pulp.
