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Department of Ecology News Release - September 26, 2001
01-170
OLYMPIA - The port of Port Angeles and the Department of Ecology have reached a settlement that will help restore fish habitat in Valley Creek, near the west end of Port Angeles Harbor.
The settlement resolves a $14,000 water-quality penalty issued to the port in January 2000 for allowing shipyard activities on its property without proper permits designed to protect water quality.
In the settlement, the port will pay $11,200 in labor and equipment to the Valley Creek Realignment project, and it will pay Ecology the balance of the penalty, $2,800.
The port's funding further boosts a restoration project that is already in progress. The early stages of the project were funded, in part, by a similar settlement between the city of Port Angeles and Ecology earlier this year.
The restoration project restores part of the creek's fish habitat, which had been harmed by urban development. Approximately 500 feet of the channel are being restored to the stream's historic alignment, and an additional 200 feet of the upstream channel will be widened.
Currently, the creek has few pools and little gravel suitable for spawning, or large woody debris to provide shade and shelter. The project will increase the adjacent floodplain area, create suitable salmon spawning and rearing habitat, and improve streamside function along the realigned channel.
The work being done under the terms of the settlement must be completed by September 2003.
Contact: Sandy Howard, public information manager, 360-407-6239
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
