PORT ANGELES –– Port of Port Angeles commissioners have approved settlements with ExxonMobil and Rayonier Advanced Materials that will reimburse the port’s out-of-pocket costs of cleaning the former 19-acre plywood mill site at 439 Marine Drive.
ExxonMobil will pay $5.5 million and Rayonier $2.2 million as reimbursement to the port for their shares of the costs.
Commissioners took action Monday.
“This final settlement will make the port whole,” said Chris Hartman, director of engineering at the port.
“On top of that, there will be money going back to the insurance carrier for what they have paid.”
The port has paid $8,995,711 for the cleanup costs, of which $6,024,354 has been reimbursed by the port’s insurers.
“No taxpayer money was spent in the end,” said Colleen McAleer, port commissioner. “That’s huge.”
The costs of the cleanup were distributed based on where the pollution came from, Hartman said.
ExxonMobil paid more in the settlement because of the amount of the soil hauled away from the cleanup site that was contaminated with gasoline and diesel.
Rayonier’s share was based on hydraulic oil in the cleanup.
The port also will be returning money to the state Department of Ecology, which provided a $2 million grant early in the process that helped fund the upfront costs of demolishing the mill in 2013.
“Now that we’ve settled with Exxon and Rayonier, we’re able to pay that money back,” Hartman said.
Hartman said cleanup of the site finished in May and that the port will continue to monitor the site.
Starting in the 1920s on filled earth, log yards, paper mills, bulk fuel plants and pipelines, and plywood mills — including KPly and, more recently, the Peninsula Plywood mill that closed in 2011 — occupied the site.
The site has been cleared and inspected for the gasoline, diesel fuel, benzene, heavy oil, hydraulic fluid, toluene and other poisons that had soaked into its soil.
Monitoring wells will be used for long-term monitoring to check groundwater in the area for pollutants.
Because the port opted to pay the upfront costs of the cleanup, Hartman said, the cleanup was able to be finished quickly.
“It’s a very lengthy process,” he said. “We were able to get through the process about as quick as any project I’ve ever had . . . largely due to the port commission being willing to spend the money upfront and seek reimbursement after the fact.”
The port’s attorney, Simon Barnhart, said the cleanup process at the former mill site could be held as an example for other agencies to emulate.
Karen Goschen, executive director of the port, said the port has taken an aggressive position in pursuing the cleanup.
In October 2012, the port signed an order with Ecology to conduct a remedial investigation.
From 2012-15, the port’s environmental consultant prepared work plans, conducted field investigations and prepared a draft cleanup action plan.
In May 2015, Ecology approved the cleanup actions, which required excavation of polluted soils, injections of bio-amendments to groundwater and long-term monitoring of soil and groundwater.
Goschen said that in March, the port was able to work out tentative terms with ExxonMobil and then later Rayonier on the cleanup.
With the cleanup and settlement finished, port officials now are looking toward developing a marine industrial park at the site.
Exactly when it would be built is still up in the air, Hartman said.
The industrial park would be an expansion of what is already on Marine Drive, he said, and would be similar to the work Westport and Platypus Marine are doing.
Hartman said the port is working with a consultant to do master planning for the site and is meeting with local shipbuilders and repair companies to gather information about what kind of infrastructure is needed.
“We’d be willing to start construction as soon as we get some tenant commitment on wanting to have a long-term lease on site,” he said. “We have to be wise with the dollars we spend.
“We have to get a broad base of input from ship repair companies and boatbuilders and make sure we get the highest return on investment.”
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
