PORT ANGELES — The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and Rayonier Inc. will hold a public meeting today to talk about the restoration of Ennis Creek.
The two organizations — which are partners in the cleanup effort for the site of Rayonier’s former pulp mill — will display pictures and conceptual images of what the creek cleanup will look like and detail plans on how it will occur.
The presentation will begin today at 6 p.m. at the Heritage Center, 401 E. First St., in the north meeting room.
Larry Dunn, Y’innis cleanup project manager for the tribe, said the Lower Elwha and Rayonier are still discussing a timeline of when the cleanup will begin and end.
The conceptual plan for the creek cleanup was originally slated for late in the process, but Rayonier agreed to move it up to coordinate with the city of Port Angeles, which needed more information for its combined sewer-overflow project planning.
The city faces a deadline of 2015 to comply with a mandate from the state Department of Ecology to have no more than four rainstorm-related overflows a year by the year 2015.
The city is currently negotiating with Rayonier to purchase a 5-million-gallon tank formerly used by the pulp mill and one of few structures left standing.
“We have been working with Rayonier and with the city on this,” Dunn said.
“The city has even worked to change some of their plans as a result of what we are planning.”
Dunn said anyone is welcome to attend the meeting and that Rayonier officials, as well as Lower Elwha Klallam officials, will be available to answer questions.
“What we have here is actual, firm plans for cleanup and restoration,” he said.
“Whatever conceptual plans are out there — this is what we know will happen.
“We’ve brought in experts and a design group to show what plans we have,” Dunn said.
The restoration should return the river to a more salmon- and trout-friendly habitat, he said.
“This will help bring the site to a more natural state,” he said.
Mike McHenry, habitat biologist for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, and Warren Snyder, manager of environment engineering for Rayonier, will lead the presentation.
“We look forward to sharing the results of our analysis of the current conditions of the Rayonier site and a possible pathway for its recovery,” he said.
In addition to the restoration of Ennis Creek, the tribe, Rayonier and the Department of Ecology are coordinating an effort to study what cleanup needs to be done on the site.
The 75-acre property on the eastern shore of Port Angeles Harbor is contaminated by heavy metals, PCBs and dioxin left from 68 years of a pulp-mill operation.
The Rayonier mill closed in 1997 and the cleanup of the site has been handled by the state Department of Ecology since 2000.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
