PORT ANGELES — A Rayonier Inc. executive says the company has not placed a monetary value on a large water tank on its property that the city of Port Angeles wants to use to nearly eliminate untreated sewage from entering marine waters.
“I haven’t quantified a dollar value on the tank,” said Charles Hood, Rayonier vice president of corporate affairs.
Hood said the company has concerns that use of the tank may hinder redevelopment of its 75-acre property on the Port Angeles Harbor at the north end of Ennis Street.
Pipes covered by 2- to 3-foot berm of soil would run parallel to the Waterfront Trail through the property to the tank, according to city plans.
“It’s an issue of concern that we totally want to understand,” he said.
Meeting Thursday
Representatives of the city and Harbor-Works Public Development Authority will travel to Florida on Thursday to resolve those concerns and convince Rayonier to transfer ownership of the 5 million-gallon tank and the rights of way it would need for the pipes to the city at no cost.
The meeting will take place at Rayonier’s corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla.
Those attending will be Deputy Mayor Betsy Wharton; City Council member Dan Di Guilio; Glenn Cutler, city Public Works director; Nathan West, city Economic and Community Development director; Bill Bloor, city attorney; and Orville Campbell, Harbor-Works Board of Directors chairman.
Cutler estimates the trip to Florida will cost between $750 and $1,000 per person.
Tank
City offer
The city’s offer will include a commitment to continue working with the company to resolve the environmental cleanup of the Rayonier property, Cutler said last week.
The Rayonier site is contaminated with pockets of PCBs, dioxin, arsenic and other toxins left by the pulp mill, which operated there for 68 years before closing in 1997.
The state Department of Ecology has supervised the cleanup, which is estimated to be completed by the end of 2012, since 2000.
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe is a partner in the cleanup, and remnants of an ancient Klallam village are buried under some of the property.
In 2000, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called the site” moderately contaminated,” perhaps 2 or 3 on a scale of 10.
Since December 2005, the city has offered to assist in the cleanup of the Rayonier property in exchange for getting the tank at no cost.
In order to do that, the city, along with the Port of Port Angeles, created the Harbor-Works Public Development Authority in May.
Harbor-Works
The city and port have each funded Harbor-Works with $150,000 loans from their economic development funds.
The public development authority is chartered with acquiring the Rayonier site or getting control of it through an agreement, directing its cleanup and redevelopment.
It’s also expected to facilitate harbor planning and cleanup.
Rayonier had input in the formation of Harbor-Works, according to city documents.
Those documents refer to Rayonier transferring the tank and necessary rights of way to the city at no cost, while Harbor-Works would take on cleanup liability, and the company would pay it the estimated cost of cleanup.
Liability
City staff will not resolve the issue of cleanup liability at the meeting, Cutler said last week.
As a public entity, Harbor-Works could apply for an Ecology grant that would cover 50 percent of the cleanup cost if it is a liable party.
Harbor-Works can take on liability only if it acquires the property, according to Ecology.
The state agency would still consider Rayonier a liable party if it sold the property.
But Harbor-Works still can agree to take the lead in the cleanup, and Ecology would look to Rayonier to reassume that role if the public development authority failed in those duties.
Deadline
Cutler said that Thursday’s meeting is necessary because the city needs to acquire the water tank by April 1 in order to meet a mandate set by Ecology.
He also said that the meeting date was the best time for Rayonier executives to meet with city representatives.
The state agency has mandated that the city average no more than four sewer overflows a year by the end of 2015. The city had 69 overflows in 2007.
Steve Sperr, city engineer, said last week that the city could be fined $10,000 a day if it doesn’t meet the deadline.
The overflows occur when too much storm water enters the city’s sewer system and causes untreated sewage to enter the harbor and Strait of Juan de Fuca through its four outflow pipes.
The city estimates it will cost between $32 million and $42 million to meet Ecology’s mandate.
So far, it has received $10 million in loans from Ecology for the project and is repaying it through $2-a-month increases in utility rates every year.
Cutler said the increases are approximately in their fourth year and will continue for another 12 to 15 years.
Additional loans could be available in summer 2011 if the city can acquire the tank and get its design work for the project completed by August 2010, he said.
On that time line, construction of pipelines to the tank, a pump station and modifications to the city’s water treatment plant could begin by April 2013.
Sperr said that another solution would have been for the city to build its own tank in a large grass area at Francis Street Park. He said that would cost more and take longer to complete.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
