The Washington State Department of Ecology recently mailed out the first report in a long time to residents near Ennis Creek in Port Angeles. This report covers the update to the work that has been going on for over a decade to try and restore the superfund site at Ennis Creek. There has been feedback from concerned citizens on the issue.
Status Update: Port Angeles Cleanup Sites and Natural Resource Damage Assessments
It’s the first report we’ve seen from Ecology since 2019 about what’s happening at the Rayonier site, Port Angeles Harbor and several other contaminated sites in the PA area that are being cleaned up, or will supposedly be cleaned up.
Here is the reply from the Friends of Ennis Creek.
ECOLOGY MAILING PROMPTS QUESTIONS, COMMENTS.
You may have recently received a 4-page mailing titled “Status Update: Port Angeles Cleanup Sites and Natural Resource Damage Assessments.”
It was sent out to North Olympic Peninsula residents and other interested parties by the state Department of Ecology (ECY) the first week of April.
The mailing came as a result of requests from Friends of Ennis Creek and others concerned about how long it’s taking to deal with toxic contaminants at the Rayonier mill site and in Port Angeles Harbor and impacts on Ennis Creek, our last best chance of a salmon stream in Port Angeles.
Here’s a link to the 4-page mailing Ecology sent — https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/cleanupsearch/document/123269.
The mailer provides a great deal of information — but it’s also concerning.
Robbie Mantooth, co-founder of Friends of Ennis Creek, found the Ecology mailing wanting in several areas:
“The city of Port Angeles, area tribes, Friends of Ennis Creek and many other governmental and non-governmental entities have told ECY leaving a toxic landfill on the Port Angeles waterfront is unacceptable.
“Public concerns have included how contaminants are likely to spread on water and land because of sea level rise and extreme weather.
“This mailing doesn’t provide enough detail to make the public’s overwhelmingly consistent demands clear.
“We have asked for speeding up actions, including doing cleanup and restoration whenever possible.”
Your comments about the mailing would be appreciated.
Please post them in this post’s comments section, below, and also email them to Barry Rogowski, program manager of state Ecology’s Toxics Cleanup Program. His email is brog461@ecy.wa.gov.
You also can email Robbie at ennis@olypen.com.
Here is Robbie’s reaction:
The public needs information about negotiations with Rayonier to restore land and water harmed by the company’s mill operations. If they must be confidential, the public deserves an explanation.
The public needs assurance that the change in property ownership, from Rayonier Properties LLC to Rayonier Advanced Materials (AM), will not affect the company’s financial responsibilities to pay for cleanup and restoration.
The public needs clarification of such subjective terms ECY is using — such as “maximum extent practicable” — and assurance this doesn’t mean a limit to the company’s responsibilities.
The public needs assurance that ECY is responsive to concerns expressed in more than 160 comments sent to ECY during the last public comment period.
Almost every comment demanded the removal of ALL contaminants from the former Rayonier mill site — but the ECY Model Toxic Control Act (MTCA) team’s most recent preferred alternatives would continue to cover and leave toxic wastes in our community rather than removing them.
We are also concerned that existing signage on the Rayonier fence does not adequately inform the public about the level of contamination and about toxic exposures to human health.
(Darlene Schanfald of the Olympic Environmental Council would like new signs at the Rayonier site and along the Olympic Discovery Trail that parallels it: “Eye-catching, informative signage is needed on the fences around the Rayonier site to inform the public why they should not enter the site.”)
The city of Port Angeles, area tribes, Friends of Ennis Creek and many other governmental and non-governmental entities have told ECY leaving a toxic landfill on the Port Angeles waterfront is unacceptable.
Public concerns have included how contaminants are likely to spread on water and land because of sea level rise and extreme weather.
This mailing doesn’t provide enough detail to make the public’s overwhelmingly consistent demands clear.
We have asked for speeding up actions, including doing cleanup and restoration whenever possible.
ECY has reported dissatisfaction with Rayonier’s failure to include some of the agency’s proposals into what is called the Interim Action Plan.
We have asked ECY to make those concerns available to the public as well as what Rayonier has proposed.
Ecology says 30,000 tons of contaminated material have been removed — but doesn’t describe the amount or contents of what remains.
When will the cleanup be finished?
A report to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) included a revised timeline much more specific than what was in the ECY mailing this month.
The timeline is especially concerning since the mailing says ECY doesn’t “yet know how far the contamination from the mill spreads.”
We have asked ECY to focus on land and water affected by the Rayonier mill — even though we share interest in the Port Angeles Harbor to the west.
Although we commend the agreement among those who have agreed to pay for the western harbor cleanup and restoration, we want to be sure that progress doesn’t detract from what remains be done for people, fish and all other life continuing to be affected by what Rayonier left behind.
We also need to clarify how the cleanup under Washington State’s Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) is related to the federal EPA.
Darlene Schanfald, who has led public involvement efforts with a grant under MTCA through the Olympic Environmental Council, provided some history of what happened after the Rayonier mill closed in 1997.
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Administration considered a Superfund designation for the land and water impacted by Rayonier Pulp Mill operations.
“EPA agreed to let the state Department of Ecology lead the cleanup under the state’s Model Toxics Control Act, but EPA would oversee actions and would have to sign off on a delisting.”
Friends of Ennis Creek and others have asked for copies of the annual report EPA requires from Ecology.
We’ve received only the one for October 2022 but have asked to be notified when others are made available, as we were told they would be, on the ECY website ( https://ecology.wa.gov/Rayonier ).
We have asked our congressman, Derek Kilmer, who grew up in Port Angeles, to help us meet with an appropriate EPA representative.
Filed under: Around the Salish Sea, Clallam County, Environmental Protection, Government | Tagged: Ennis Creek, Friends of Ennis Creek, Port Angeles, Rayonier, Superfund, Superfund Site | 2 Comments »
