DISCOVERY BAY – Saying she will do “anything I can,” Rep. Lynn Kessler called for immediate steps Thursday to save the Beckett Point community septic and drainfield project where Native American remains have been found.
Kessler spoke to about 60 people at the Jefferson County Courthouse on Thursday.
“I wish I were here with a big checkbook, but I’m not,” Kessler told the audience that included tribal representatives, Beckett Point homeowners who have paid $28,000 each for their share of the PUD system, and others.
Kessler said she would talk with other representatives of the 24th District and with Gov. Chris Gregoire to seek funding from the Puget Sound Initiative, passed by the Legislature last year to fund cleanup of pollution.
The $2.8 million Jefferson County Public Utility project is intended to provide a sewage removal system to replace some 80 failing septic systems on Discovery Bay.
The project was shut down on May 29, two days after remains believed to be Native American were uncovered near Beckett Point Road leading into the beachside village south of Cape George.
Recovered were 58 bone and bone fragments.
Stephenie Kramer, assistant state archaeologist with the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, said that initial findings show the remains to be those of a Native American 100 years or older.
The Jamestown S’Klallam believe the site was a former village, said Kathy Duncan, cultural specialist with the Blyn tribe, on Monday.
She said then that discovery of human remains there should be handled with the utmost sensitivity.
PUD officials have said they cannot delay or continue the project without state grant assistance.
Democratic House Majority Leader Kessler, who was joined by freshman Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, and Allyson Brooks, state Historic Preservation officer and managing director of the state’s Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, met with Jefferson County commissioners and PUD commissioners.
It was the second meeting on the matter this week.
Kessler said she wanted to honor the tribe’s need to care for human remains but that she is also concerned about cleaning up Puget Sound.
Jim Parker, PUD manager, and other PUD officials expressed optimism that the project could perhaps continue.
On Monday, the PUD had threatened to shut down the project for lack of funding.
If the county expedites needed permits, Parker said he would probably order the contractor to resume work on the upper part of the project rather than near the shoreline.
Parker has reported that the cost of the project to date has been about $1.07 million, with $800,000 going to the contractor, Pape and Sons, and the rest to project consultants, Parametrix of Seattle.
The PUD has been given a no-interest loan of $100,000 by the state Public Works Board to fund an archeological study, already under way.
