PORT ANGELES — The completion of two studies on industrial contaminants in the waters and soil of Port Angeles is taking longer than expected.
The state Department of Ecology expects to have its draft reports on contamination of Port Angeles Harbor and its study on dioxin contamination of Port Angeles soil released for public review in July or August, said Rebecca Lawson, Ecology’s toxic cleanup program regional manager. Ecology previously expected those reports to be released in April.
Ecology’s preliminary results of its dioxin study released in February found that 45 of the 85 samples exceed Ecology’s cleanup level of dioxin, a carcinogen, of 11 parts of dioxin per trillion parts of soil in residential areas.
The purpose of that sampling is to determine the extent of dioxin contamination from the former Rayonier Inc. pulp mill on the east end of the harbor. The samples weren’t collected in a way that would determine the extent of contamination on the properties they were taken from.
Lawson said Ecology has yet to receive its report from its contractor, Ecology and Environment, on the likely sources of the dioxin found in the samples, which is why the public comment period has been delayed.
“I think we underestimated how much time it was going to take,” said Marian Abbett, Rayonier site manager for Ecology.
“We were hopeful for an April time frame. It was unrealistic.”
Lawson said some “unexpected staff leave” has delayed the release of the harborwide investigation.
The dioxin study pertains only to the delayed cleanup of the 75-acre former Rayonier mill site. Ecology is hoping to extend the cleanup site to include any dioxin contamination of the property that it finds Rayonier to be responsible for emitting.
Ecology has supervised the cleanup of the mill site since 2000.
The mill closed after operating for 68 years in 1997.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe is a partner in the cleanup, and remnants of a Klallam village are buried under portions of the property.
The Rayonier property has been an Ecology cleanup site since 2000.
The harborwide investigation is part of the state’s Puget Sound Initiative, which has the goal of cleaning up seven Puget sound-area bays, including Port Angeles Harbor, by 2020.
Ecology collected sediment samples from the harbor last summer.
Lawson said Ecology will use the findings of those samples, such as type of contamination, to determine who is liable for cleanup of the harbor.
“It may not be that clean and we may need to collect more information,” she said.
Lawson said on Friday that the report had not been delivered to her office.
Ecology is also using some of the samples from the harbor as part of the Rayonier site cleanup.
As part of Ecology’s two cleanup agreements with Rayonier, known as agreed orders, the company was responsible for contracting with a company for sampling the marine waters near the site as well as the mill property.
Abett said the sampling of both areas were incomplete, and Ecology took the sediment samples of the harbor near the site it thought was needed.
“It was very clear that they didn’t define the extent of the site” with the data, Lawson said.
The incomplete data provided by Rayonier, Lawson said, is one of the reasons why the cleanup has taken longer than expected.
“We haven’t been able to move forward with the property because of the question of, ‘What’s the extent of the site?'” she said.
In 2000, Ecology said the cleanup would take four years to complete. Lawson said the cleanup could be completed as early as 2012.
Also contributing to delays is disagreements over the extent of the site.
Lawson has said that Ecology wanted Rayonier to conduct the sampling for dioxin off its property, but rather than fight the issue in court, Ecology decided to conduct the sampling on its own.
Lawson said that couldn’t be done when the cleanup was supervised by Ecology’s solid waste division, which managed the project until the toxics cleanup division took over in November 2007, because it has less funding.
Abbett said the data gaps were discovered in late 2006 and February 2008.
She said that since she took over as project manager in late 2007, Ecology has not put any pressure on Rayonier to do any further sampling to make up for those gaps in the data because it is seeking to make new agreed order with the company for the entire site.
“We just think it will be cleaner to put
Abbett said that new agreed order would require Rayonier to do the additional sampling on its property and conduct some additional minor cleanup actions, known as “interim actions,” on the site. Lawson said a draft should be completed within a month, and will be sent to Rayonier.
“We will indicate a specific negotiation time frame where we would expect to come to an agreement,” she said. “And we hope that Rayonier will sign the agreed order and get going at least on getting the property and adjacent marine area finally investigated and get some interim actions done,” she said.
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
