PORT ANGELES — City Hall may own about 12 acres of Rayonier’s former mill site next week.
The proposed $995,000 transaction will be presented to the City Council at a special meeting Tuesday.
The seven-member council will be asked to ratify the agreement at the meeting, which will begin at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
The regular meeting will be preceded by an executive session, which is closed to the public, at 5 p.m. to discuss acquisition of real estate.
The purchase would provide the city of Port Angeles with a large tank that would help prevent sewage overflows and give it room for expansion of its waste water treatment plant, located adjacent to the property.
Previously, at its Aug. 17 meeting, the council had granted City Manager Kent Myers authority to sign the purchase agreement as long as certain terms were met.
Certain terms
That included the purchase price and a guarantee from Rayonier Inc. that it would pay for all environmental cleanup costs for the 11.86 acres the city would own.
Myers said Wednesday those terms have been met.
He said it’s being brought to the City Council anyway because he wants to make sure that “we are following council direction.”
“We don’t anticipate any problems,” Myers said.
The city will use the 5-million-gallon tank to temporarily store untreated sewage and storm water that would otherwise overflow into Port Angeles Harbor during heavy rainfall.
The state Department of Ecology is requiring the city to resolve the problem by 2016.
The city estimates the sewage overflow project will cost about $40 million.
It must average no more than one overflow at each of its four outfalls a year to comply with Ecology’s standards.
Approximately 32 million gallons of untreated effluent is dumped in the harbor every year.
The city initially planned to acquire the tank through the Harbor-Works Development Authority, but those plans changed last summer when Rayonier ended negotiations with the public development authority. Harbor-Works is in the process of dissolving.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
