PORT ANGELES — Let the sprint boat races continue.
Extreme Sports Park co-owner Dan Morrison and the federal Environmental Protection Agency have reached an agreement that will have no impact on Morrison’s ability to keep his sprint boat racetrack intact, the EPA said Friday.
Under the July 14 consent agreement and final order (CAFO), Morrison and his wife Kelie’s A2Z Enterprises must pay a $14,000 fine and restore a combined 1.3 acres of wetlands by Sept. 30 that are next to the track and were damaged during its construction, according to the agency announcement Friday.
The final details of a restoration plan are still being hammered out, EPA spokeswoman Brianna Stoutenburgh said Friday, adding that the draft plan is not a public document.
She said the track was built adjacent to — not on — wetlands.
“We don’t have the authority or means to say they have to get rid of the track,” Stoutenburgh said.
The EPA announced the agreement on the eve of Saturday’s American Sprint Boat Racing competition, which was expected to draw thousands of spectators.
It’s one of two such events held at the 4-acre park this summer.
A2Z Enterprises “admits the jurisdictional allegations of this CAFO,” according to the agreement.
Morrison was unhappy about the outcome Friday and criticized the neighboring Dry Creek Coalition, which he said “turned me in.”
“It’s stupid,” Morrison said.
“I was never guilty of anything they accused me of.”
The Morrisons had already consented to the agreement and submitted a restoration plan in May.
Morrison told the Peninsula Daily News on May 5 that filling the wetlands “was an honest mistake.”
Morrison filled the wetlands as he built the jet-boat track west of Port Angeles at 2917 Edgewood Drive.
The fill material included soil and gravel, each of which is considered a pollutant under the federal Clean Water Act, according to the CAFO.
The coalition, composed of neighbors of the track, filed a complaint with the state Department of Ecology in 2010 and received free legal assistance from the Seattle-based Center for Environmental Law & Policy.
When the unauthorized fill activity occurred, the site contained wetlands that were next to and continuously connected to Dry Creek, which flows into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, according to the CAFO.
The timing of the announcement of a final agreement was coincidental, Stoutenburgh said.
A CAFO was signed July 15.
“We’re working on the final details of [the restoration plan] right now,” Stoutenburgh said.
“We were trying to get it done earlier, but the process took a little longer.
Dry Creek Coalition member Harley Oien said the agreement was reached after a teleconference that included coalition board members and representatives from the EPA, Army Corps of Engineers and the Center for Environmental Law & Policy, which specializes in river and water management issues.
Wetlands restoration “is supposed to be a pretty expensive proposition,” Oien said.
“If they don’t further defile the wetlands, tear up any more wetlands, we’re fine.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
