PORT ANGELES — The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe wanted representation on the Port Angeles Harbor Works Public Development Authority board, says the tribe’s Rayonier site cleanup coordinator.
“When we found out the PDA was being developed, the tribe sent a letter to the city and the port requesting a position on the board,” Larry Dunn, the tribe’s Rayonier site cleanup coordinator, said Friday.
“We never got an answer to it.”
The 75-acre Rayonier Inc. site at the north end of Ennis Street is fouled by dioxins and other pollutants from the pulp mill that closed in 1997.
The tribe is a partner in the cleanup with the state Department of Ecology, which has widened its efforts to include the waters of Port Angeles Harbor.
Ecology employees on Friday were taking samples in the harbor, Dunn said.
“We’re working with them to collect the clams and the algae and things from the bottom,” he said.
The “Ennis” of the namesake street and creek and the “Ediz” of Ediz Hook both derive from I’e’nis, an ancient Native American village now covered by the Rayonier parking lot.
