EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a two-part series. The first article appeared Sunday and can be viewed under “Recent Peninsula News” near the bottom of the home page.
(This link will take you to the three-page July 21 letter from Rayonier to Harbor-Works — http://issuu.com/PeninsulaDailyNews/docs/rayonierletter?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true ).
PORT ANGELES — Supporters of the Harbor-Works Development Authority say it should continue to negotiate for the Rayonier mill site, despite the surprise letter from Rayonier last week announcing that the company was halting negotiations.
“My initial thoughts are that I hope they keep talking,” said Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilo.
Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb said he is also encouraging further negotiations, and the three port commissioners said they stand solidly behind Harbor-Works.
The letter from Rayonier, received Wednesday, was a sudden and unexpected development, according to Harbor-Works officials.
It arrived about two weeks before the board of Harbor-Works was to decide whether to acquire the former mill site on the eastern shore of Port Angeles Harbor.
Opponents said they hope that Harbor-Works — formed with the financial support of the city and port in 2008 to acquire and direct the cleanup of the site — will now dissolve.
Darlene Schanfald of the Sequim-based Olympic Environmental Council called the Rayonier letter good news.
“I think Rayonier made a good and proper decision. . . . It is one of the very few times I have ever agreed with them,” she said.
Schanfald has long opposed the commercial development that Harbor-Works has envisioned for the site.
Schanfald and other environmental activists have suggested developing the site to a low level of economic activity that would focus mostly on Native American cultural history.
Schanfald said that the two years of Harbor-Works’ existence was useless.
“What a waste, a shameful waste,” she said.
‘No further interest’
In the letter from Rayonier, Michael R. Herman, vice president and general counsel at the company’s headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla., wrote that the company has “no further interest in pursuing a transaction with HW [Harbor-Works] at this time.”
He noted at the beginning of the letter that “it has been several weeks since we communicated to [Harbor-Works] our conclusion that a transaction with HW was premature and unacceptable on ther terms offered . . . [now] we feel compelled to set the record straight.”
Charles Hood, Rayonier vice president of corporate affairs, said that the company no longer sees an opportunity for shared liability in the cleanup costs — and that Rayonier now plans to hold on to the property at least until its required level of environmental cleanup, and the extent of the company’s liability, is determined.
Rayonier officials have said in the past that the company has removed the majority of dioxins, PCBs and other toxins from the site. The site’s cleanup has been under the direction of the state Department of Ecology since 2000.
Jeff Lincoln, Harbor-Works executive director, hopes to keep negotiations going by getting a promise of a $4 million contribution from Ecology’s cleanup fund.
He plans to meet with state officials on this early next month.
But Rebecca Lawson, regional manager for Ecology’s toxic cleanup program, said the department will not provide funding for an entity to clean up property that it doesn’t own.
Hood has said that the absence of financial backing from Ecology is what prompted the company to end negotiations.
If negotiations can’t be restarted, Lincoln said he expects that the Harbor-Works board will hold a special meeting Aug. 16 to consider whether the public entity should dissolve.
Letter ‘posturing’?
Di Guilo said he was disappointed to read the letter from Rayonier but wasn’t ready to say the negotiations might be over.
“I wonder how much of this is posturing,” he said, adding he has not been privy to discussions between Harbor-Works and Rayonier.
“I haven’t been involved in this, but sometimes you see that kind of thing occur.
“The city and community have a lot invested to try and get the site cleaned up.
“I hope every party will look at every opportunity and every strategy to get the deal done and get started on [final] cleaning.”
His feelings were echoed in a response letter from Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers to Herman at Rayonier.
“The city urges both Harbor Works and Rayonier to continue bilateral negotiations until every possible proposal, plan, scenario and offer has been analyzed thoroughly,” Myers wrote.
City deal for tank
Both Myers and Di Guilo emphasized that negotiations between the city and Rayonier are moving forward for purchase of a huge tank on the Rayonier property.
City officials want to use the 5-million-gallon storage tank to prevent sewage overflows into Port Angeles Harbor and the Strait of Juan de Fuca and meet state Combined Sewer Overflow standards.
“The negotiations with the CSO are proceeding very well,” Myers said.
“We are hoping that in the next four to five weeks we will have the negotiations completed and have a final agreement in place.”
Hopes for benefit
Norma Turner is a longtime Port Angeles civic activist and opponent of Harbor-Works.
“I trust that Rayonier will continue to work with the [state] Department of Ecology,” she said.
“I guess all I can say is that I hope the money spent on all those studies — that those studies will be a source of good information as they move forward.
“I hope there is some good benefit.”
Turner on Tuesday presented a petition with about 400 signatures for the City Council, saying that no public money should be used to acquire or clean up the former mill site.
Shirley Nixon, a Port Angeles attorney, has questioned whether the formation of Harbor-Works in 2008 was done in a legal manner.
“It appears to me that Rayonier gave legitimate reasons for breaking off negotiations,” she said in an interview.
“I believe it would be best for Harbor-Works to step aside at this time.”
Disagreeing with her is Robb, the port’s executive director.
Robb told the Peninsula Daily News:
“Harbor-Works has been a catalyst for cleanup effort and has stimulated community involvement in this process.
“Harbor-Works is an independent organization with a board of directors, and we would encourage them to continue to work to negotiate a mutually acceptable arrangement between Rayonier and Harbor-Works.”
One suggestion presented in public meetings for use of the land was to assign a portion of property, when it is finally cleaned up, to the port to pay for loans that had been given to Harbor-Works.
The port and the city have loaned $1.3 million to the public development authority to complete its “due diligence process.”
Robb said the port remains interested in the property once it is cleaned up, whether Harbor-Works is a part of that process or not.
Frances Charles, chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, which shares regulatory authority over the cleanup because the area includes the site of an ancient Klallam village, said she thinks Harbor-Works still has a “window of opportunity.”
“As far as I know it isn’t like they are closing the door — they are waiting on further comments and response.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 360-417-3535 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Tom Callis contributed to this report.
