PORT ANGELES — Members of a group opposed to Harbor-Works presented a petition Tuesday to the City Council that contained more than 400 signatures of people against the use of public funds for the acquisition or cleanup of Rayonier’s former pulp mill site.
In response, a Harbor-Works Development Authority representative said the public entity will not negotiate a contract that involves public funds being used for cleanup.
Port Angeles resident John Ford presented the petition to the Port Angeles City Council on behalf of Citizens for Fiscal Restraint & Public Accountability during the public comment period.
Ford criticized the city for forming the public development authority without allowing for public comment on its creation more than two years ago, and said that public money should be kept out of the cleanup of the Rayonier property and its purchase.
“The Harbor-Works board does not represent us,” he said.
“We do not want Harbor-Works involved in the future decisions about the Rayonier property or its cleanup.”
Four other people also criticized the public development authority during public comment.
“There must be a solution where we don’t get stuck with the cleanup of the property,” said Port Angeles resident Paul Lamoureux.
Jim Hallett, Harbor-Works board member, told the council after the speakers finished that the public development authority will not strike a deal with Rayonier that involves putting any public money toward cleanup.
“Rayonier and Rayonier solely is responsible for the cleanup,” Hallett said.
“Nothing Harbor-Works will do will let Rayonier off the hook.”
The city, with support from the port, created Harbor-Works in May 2008 to acquire the 75-acre former mill site located on Port Angeles Harbor, help expedite its environmental cleanup, direct its redevelopment and transfer to the city a large tank on the property that it wants to use to help prevent sewage overflows.
Acquisition plans
The Harbor-Works board expects to make a decision next month whether to acquire the site.
Harbor-Works, as a property owner, would become liable along with Rayonier for the cleanup under state law.
Deputy Mayor Don Perry said that it has been the council’s intention from the start to not obligate public funds toward the cleanup with any purchase agreement.
“Rayonier will not be off the hook for cleanup,” he said. “That’s been our statement from day one.”
Harbor-Works Executive Director Jeff Lincoln has said that he expects that Rayonier would pay the difference between the cost of cleanup and the value of the cleaned-up property if it agrees to sell it.
The property — which is contaminated with heavy metals, PCBs and dioxin left from 68 years of pulp mill operation — could would be worth between $4 million and $10 million once cleaned up, he said.
It has been a state Department of Ecology cleanup site since 2000.
Ecology has yet to put a price tag on the cleanup effort since it has not defined the extent of contamination.
Citizens group
The informal group, Citizens for Fiscal Restraint & Public Accountability, consists of 15 to 20 people who helped Norma Turner, a longtime critic of Harbor-Works, collect signatures for the petition.
Turner, who lives south of Port Angeles, said she decided to start the petition last month because she feels that the public development authority, and the two entities that fund it — the city and Port of Port Angeles — are not listening to concerns about the use of public funds for the Rayonier site.
“We want to let them know that there is a part of the community that they are not representing,” she said.
Turner said she wants Harbor-Works kept out of the cleanup process and let it be sorted out solely between Ecology and Rayonier.
The petition will be sent to state and federal elected officials as well as Gov. Chris Gregoire and state Department of Ecology staff, she said.
Public funding
To date, Harbor-Works has received $1.5 million in public funding.
The city and port have loaned the public development authority $1.3 million for the “due diligence” process to determine if it is feasible to purchase the property.
Harbor-Works is also the recipient of a $200,000 grant from Ecology to pay for environmental and habitat assessments, a market analysis and a cultural review.
Rayonier and Ecology negotiated a new agreement this year that calls for a cleanup plan to be developed for both the property and 1,325 acres of harbor sediment within three years.
As part of that new timeline, the company submitted Tuesday a final work plan for soil testing on the property.
The final report on results of sampling work conducted by Ecology in the harbor and around Port Angeles in 2008 as part of the Rayonier cleanup has not been completed.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
