PORT TOWNSEND — An agreement that led to the approval of a Port Townsend Paper Corp. limited-purpose landfill permit was lauded by the parties involved.
“A lot of time and a lot of effort has been spent to get here,” said Jefferson County Environmental Health and Water Director Jared Keefer at a public workshop Monday night.
“We are very, very pleased to have reached this point.”
Keefer’s short speech was the only public statement during the 90-minute gathering at the Cotton Building, which was attended by about 60 people and included representatives of the county, the mill and the state Department of Ecology.
Julia Cochrane of Port Townsend said she was disappointed in the format: “There is no sitting down with an oral presentation of what this stuff means to make it understandable for people like me.”
Cochrane said she was looking to find out the exact amount of new pollution that will result from the new permit.
“I still don’t understand what the justification for this is,” she said.
Kevin Scott, director of sustainability at the paper mill, the county’s largest private employer, said the company was happy with the permit.
“It covers all of the things that people were concerned about,” he said.
“It includes financial assurance for the future closure of the mill and additional groundwater monitoring.”
Under the terms of the permit, Port Townsend Paper must install two groundwater monitoring wells, one by the end of this year and another during the first quarter of 2016.
It is responsible for quarterly groundwater monitoring.
It must submit an updated closure plan and closure/post-closure cost estimates, and provide financial assurance for closure and post-closure maintenance and monitoring of the landfill.
PT AirWatchers president Gretchen Brewer, whose organization has opposed the permit, said it was important for the mill to put up enough money to cover the potential costs of maintenance and monitoring.
“That will be an issue: that they cover any problems they may cause,” Brewer said.
“We haven’t yet seen how that will work.”
Dr. Thomas Locke, public health officer for Jefferson and Clallam counties, said the permit addressed the county health department’s concerns.
“From the beginning of this process, we had some very detailed objectives, and all of them are met with this permit,” he said.
“It’s the right set of regulations for this type of landfill and takes into account anything that may happen down the road.
“It has addressed our financial concerns, and any problems that emerge will be a mill expense and not a public expense.”
The company, which had operated under a permit for inert waste since 2004, applied for renewal in September 2012, and the Jefferson County Public Health Department denied the request, saying the landfill should be permitted under the more stringently regulated limited purpose classification.
Mill officials appealed the decision. Mediation among representatives of the paper company, the county and Ecology led to the present permit, effective July 3, which will expire in five years.
The permit allows disposal of lime grit — also known as slaker grit — boiler ash, inert wastes and incidental metal residual material from the combustion of boiler fuel at the mill.
The company has agreed to monitor for landfill gases for three years. If no landfill gases are detected above a specific level during that time, the company can discontinue monitoring them.
The permit was scheduled to be addressed by the Pollution Control Hearings Board later this year.
In preparation for that hearing, all parties entered mediation, during which time the agreement was reached.
David Alvarez, the Jefferson County chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney, called the agreement “a great success” that took a long time to achieve.
“When you get lawyers involved, things don’t always go well,” Alvarez said.
“I don’t worry about why it took so long because it’s more important to see where we are now.”
________
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
