PORT ANGELES — Rayonier Inc. has hired Gallatin Public Affairs of Seattle to assess the community’s perception of the environmental cleanup of its former mill site on the Port Angeles Harbor.
The cleanup process for the 75-acre property began in 2000 under the auspices of the state Department of Ecology, but no significant action on the site, other than soil and water sampling, has been taken.
The pulp paper mill — which contaminated the property with pockets of PCBs, dioxins, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead and other hazardous contaminates during its 68 years of operation — closed in 1997.
In May, the city of Port Angeles and the Port of Port Angeles created the Harbor-Works Public Development Authority — loaning it $150,000 each — to acquire the site from Rayonier, oversee its cleanup and direct its redevelopment.
By acquiring the property, Harbor-Works would become a liable party in the cleanup.
The five-member Harbor-Works board has decided to hold off on major decisions until a task force determines if all is in order.
The first meeting of that task force — which will include the full Port Angeles City Council and at least two of the three port commissioners — has not been set, although the council is considering either Tuesday or Wednesday, said city spokeswoman Teresa Pierce.
The city of Port Angeles first approached Rayonier about creating Harbor-Works about a year ago, Port Angeles City Attorney Bill Bloor has said, and a draft purchase and sale agreement between Rayonier and Harbor-Works was presented to city officials at a June 25 meeting in Seattle. Bloor has said no action has been taken in relation to the document, which he said outlined the company’s “needs and wants.”
Bruce Gryniewski of Gallatin said his research began in mid-November.
Rayonier’s reasons
Charles Hood, Rayonier vice president of corporate affairs, said he has wanted to conduct research since he started working for the company in July 2007.
“We decided it would be productive to do an assessment of opinions, attitudes, a wish list kind of an inventory of what people are really thinking about our project,” he said.
So far as he knows, this is the first time the company has done such research.
“What we will do with it is do an evaluation, talk through what we’ve learned, internally try to incorporate that into the plans. It’s an effort to see how we can do better at a community outreach project.”
The research will include interviews with about 100 public officials and private citizens, Gryniewski said.
“We’ve been hired to interview just a broad range of representatives within the community to get a sense of where our community attitudes, challenges and opportunities are in terms of getting it cleaned up,” he said.
“It’s a pretty big list of everybody from business to government leaders to citizen activists.”
Gryniewski said his research is about 20 percent complete, but he has yet to come to Port Angeles for in-person interviews.
Teresa Pierce, city spokeswoman, said Gallatin has contacted City Council members via e-mail.
Travel to PA soon
Gryniewski said he intends to travel to Port Angeles in the next couple of weeks for in-person interviews that could include City Council members.
He said he has yet to speak with any of the council members, and he declined to identify who else is to be interviewed or who he has spoken with until his research is completed.
Gallatin’s Web site says the company uses research to help its clients reach their intended goals.
“We also know how phone surveys, focus groups and opinion leader interviews can be used to create a winning strategy and message,” the Web site says.
Cleanup
Rayonier and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe — remnants of a Klallam village are buried under some of the property — are partners with Ecology in the cleanup, which was originally expected to be finished in 2004 and now is estimated to be completed by December 2012.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2000 called the Rayonier site “moderately contaminated,” perhaps 2 or 3 on a scale of 10.
Jim Pendowski, Ecology toxics cleanup program regional manager, has said that disagreements with Rayonier over the extent of the cleanup site are the cause of the cleanup not being completed within the first four years.
Ecology and Rayonier have agreed upon a study area that includes the company’s property and extends about a mile northeast into the harbor.
The disagreements revolve around whether or not to include the entire Port Angeles Harbor and soil off the property as part of that study area.
Ecology’s toxics division took over the project from the department’s solid waste division last year, and since it has more resources, Pendowski has said it has been able to conduct the additional sampling on its own, with the intention of holding Rayonier liable for any contamination.
Rayonier liability
Rayonier has funded sampling within the current sampling area, but Hood said the company has been hesitant about extending that responsibility elsewhere, because it is concerned that it may be found liable for contamination that it isn’t entirely, or even partly, responsible for.
“We have a responsibility to our shareholders to be careful with how we spend our money,” he said. “We are not to spend it because someone says we ought to be doing this type of work.”
Hood said the pollutants can come from a variety of sources, “and our position is we’re not going to be the liable party for anything and everything that shows up in any sample.”
Results from harbor and off-site soil sampling conducted by Ecology should be completed in the spring. The tribe assisted in the harbor sampling.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
