PORT ANGELES — The city is still seeking a seat on a multiagency committee tasked with assessing damages the former Rayonier pulp mill caused to natural resources.
Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers sent a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday requesting a seat and protesting the rejection letter sent last month by the state Department of Ecology, which is heading the committee.
Myers said he disagrees with Ecology’s determination, which was that the city can’t participate because it doesn’t have any regulatory authority over natural resources.
He wrote that the city is required by state law to be stewards of shoreline habitat and points out that the city is a partial owner of the former mill property, located on the Port Angeles waterfront.
“It just seems really unfair that a local government that has that many stewardship and ownership interests would not be part of the process,” Myers said.
Karina Shagren, a spokeswoman for the Governor’s Office, said Gregoire will review the letter and make a determination.
“The governor intends to respond to the city,” she said.
The committee, known as the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Team, is made up of Ecology, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Lower Elwha Klallam, Jamestown S’Klallam and Port Gamble S’Klallam tribes.
Rayonier Inc. initiated the NRDA process last year, according to NOAA staff.
The process, which could take years, will determine what Rayonier can do to resolve damages to natural resources.
That can include habitat restoration on its former mill site.
The city has expressed concern that the company, which has declined to comment on the issue, plans to return the approximately 63 acres it still owns back to its natural state to meet that liability.
The city purchased the additional 11.86 acres of the site in 2010 for $995,000 as part of its sewage-overflow elimination project.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
