PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Harbor-Works Development Authority executive director will present two new possibilities for development of the now-fallow Rayonier site at a public forum Thursday.
Harbor-Works Executive Director Jeff Lincoln also will talk about the progress that has been made toward the purchase of the 75-acre site on the Port Angeles waterfront from Rayonier Inc.
Third forum
The forum, the third hosted by the public development authority on options for redevelopment of the Rayonier property, will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Port Angeles Senior Center, 328 E. Seventh St.
The two options include a Port of Port-Angeles merging of elements of other possibilities, as well as one idea of making the waterfront property a park.
Lincoln will present the two new options for the site — once a pulp mill, which closed in 1997 — as well as information on the three options developed earlier.
He and some of the entity’s consultants will be available for questions at the meeting, he said.
The two new options are:
• Alternative D, put together by the Port of Port Angeles, which includes marine industries on the west side of the property and a cultural center on the east side.
• Alternative E, which arose during the public comment period, Lincoln said, would mean that the property would not be developed at all.
Instead the land would be a park-like area, Lincoln said.
In the past, the Olympic Environmental Council, based in Sequim, has suggested refraining from development of the land.
The two alternatives are in addition to three that Lincoln has previously presented.
The alternatives as developed by Harbor-Works are:
• Alternative A, which describes a diverse development with marine, retail and industrial uses.
• Alternative B also includes retail and commercial development but adds a proposal for a cultural research facility and museum east of Ennis Creek, where the village of Y’innis is presumed to have been.
• Alternative C focuses on marine industries and includes a marina and an industrial area.
Lincoln also will update the public on the due diligence process of acquiring the property from Rayonier.
When the city of Port Angeles and the Port of Port Angeles created Harbor-Works in May 2008, it was charged with assisting in the cleanup of the site and with acquiring it for redevelopment.
After the mill, which operated for 68 years, closed, pockets of PCBs, dioxin, arsenic and other toxins were found on the site, which is at the end of Ennis Street.
It has been an Ecology cleanup project since 2000.
Rayonier officials have signed an agreement with the state Department of Ecology that creates a three-year timeline for more study preceding actual cleanup.
Ecology officials have not signed the agreement. The department was awaiting results of a public comment period that closed earlier this month before finalizing the plan.
Lincoln said that, despite the new timeline, some progress can be made during that time.
“There are certain areas of the site where the contamination is known,” he said at the Monday Port of Port Angeles meeting.
“There are several hot spots that we might be able to clean up and move forward with development in those areas.”
He outlined areas that were known to be contaminated with petroleum and metals and, to a lesser extent, dioxin. The three areas are on the west side of Ennis Creek.
“So, for example, we might be able to move forward with some cleanup on those areas while they are studying some of the others,” he said.
“So although Ecology is against complete redevelopment during this three-year period, we could possibly start even within that timeline.”
Rayonier has said it has removed 20,000 tons of contaminated soil from the property and spent about $25 million on cleanup to date.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
