DISCOVERY BAY — Jefferson County has agreed to pay for part of an initial archaeological dig completed Tuesday at Beckett Point, where evidence of prehistoric burials was uncovered last week.
Jim Parker, Jefferson County Public Utility District manager, told the PUD commissioners on Thursday that the county has agreed to pay $8,000 of an $18,000 bill to archaeologist Gary Wessen and a team of tribal members who in the past two weeks have sifted through backfill along the shore at Beckett Point Road.
Parker said the PUD is paying for the remaining $10,000 through a state Archaeology and Historic Preservation Department grant, and PUD commissioners on Thursday reiterated their preference for state grants over bank loans to continue the project.
The $2.8 million Beckett Point community septic system and drainfield project, which aims to repair about 80 failing septic systems on shellfish-rich Discovery Bay, was shut down in late May when a project contractor unearthed 58 bone and bone fragments that were determined to be of native origin.
Parker said more archaeological work is in order, with two weeks of archaeological survey along the shoreline and an assessment that could take two more weeks.
Once that work is completed and the PUD is cleared, Parker said, Beckett Point septic system work could resume this summer.
“The next phase is a plan for collecting information on the lower part of the project,” Parker said.
He said an archaeologist is expected to dig with a shovel through the midden layer of shoreline soil before the PUD’s contractor, Pape and Son, digs deeper to lay additional septic system pipelines.
“If he finds something deeper than that, we’re talking about prehistoric stuff there,” Parker said.
Soon after the discovery of remains, shell middens and fire-cracked rock were found along the Beckett Point beach, said Wessen.
That includes the shoreline along Viewpoint Lane, where PUD’s contractor still has to lay septic system pipeline.
Parker said he will attend the annual meeting of the Beckett Point Fisherman’s Club at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Cape George Fire Hall, 3850 Cape George Road, to discuss with homeowners the future of the PUD’s Beckett Point community septic system and drainfield project.
Wessen and tribal representatives last week sifted through backfill piles directly across Beckett Point Road where the PUD contractor, Pape and Sons, was digging a trench when remains were unearthed in late May.
That stopped work on the Beckett Point project, although state officials allowed PUD to continue work on the upper hillside section of the project last week, while the archaeological team worked below near the shore.
No other remains or artifacts have been uncovered at the uphill portion of the project off Beckett Point Road.
Work on the lower portion of the project is on hold until an archaeological plan of action can be devised and approved by the regional tribes involved and state Archaeology.
State Rep. Lynn Kessler on Thursday said she is still working closely with Gov. Chris Gregoire’s office in an attempt to secure some funding for archaeological study.
Kessler said legislation to that effect is expected to be proposed in the coming legislative session.
“With this newest discovery, we have a whole new ball of wax, so I’m not sure how we’re going to deal with that,” the Democratic House majority leader said in a phone interview from Hoquiam home.
“I feel very badly for what’s going on at Beckett Point because it’s not only a waste of money but what about this sewage problem?
“It’s all kind of a mess, isn’t it?” she said, adding that she was still optimistic.
Kessler and Sequim Democratic Rep. Kevin Van De Wege joined tribal representatives, Jefferson County, PUD and Beckett Point residents for a special meeting in June.
At the time, Kessler said she believed state funding could be secured to pay for additional costs to PUD. She voiced support for projects such as that at Beckett Point, which protect water quality.
The governor’s Puget Sound Initiative aims to clean up the region’s waterways.
The state Legislature this year approved $238 million to fund such projects.
Jefferson County Environmental Health has also applied for a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Ecology to assist PUD with additional costs for the archaeological study and the septic system project itself.
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
