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Department of Ecology News Release - October 18, 2006
06-214
OLYMPIA - The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology), along with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Rayonier invite the public to review and comment on the just-released draft remedial investigation report for the cleanup of the former Rayonier mill site on Ennis Street in Port Angeles.
The report is an account of the investigation Rayonier conducted to determine the extent and levels of contamination in soil, groundwater, plants and even earthworms, in the uplands portion of the mill site. The report was prepared by Rayonier and has been reviewed by Ecology.
Under the state's cleanup laws, Rayonier, as property owner, is responsible for cleaning up the contamination.
In addition, Ecology and the Tribe have prepared a separate report that presents an analysis of the data for dioxins under changes proposed to the state's dioxin cleanup levels. Methods for evaluating dioxins may change before the cleanup will take place at the Rayonier mill site, so both current and proposed methods are included in this analysis.
Ecology, the Tribe and Rayonier will jointly conduct an open house and public meeting about the documents from 5 to 9 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 8, at Clallam County Commissioners Board Room, 223 Fourth Street in Port Angeles.
The public meeting will begin at 7 p.m. during which time people may provide oral comments about the documents.
In addition, Ecology has created a new Web site dedicated to the Rayonier mill cleanup with links to its partners and the Olympic Environmental Council, an environmental group that has a grant to help conduct outreach for the cleanup.
The Web site is: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/rayonier/rayonier_hp.htm
"Cleaning up the former mill site is important to the Port Angeles community, and the new Web site will allow us to make the latest information available at all times to everyone who is interested as the cleanup proceeds," said Laurie Davies, a manager in Ecology's solid waste program, which is overseeing the work.
The cleanup documents may be reviewed at the Port Angeles Library, the library at Peninsula College, and at Ecology Southwest Regional Office in Lacey, located at 300 Desmond Drive. Not all of the latest documents are posted on Ecology's Web site due to size limitations, however the Web site contains much of the information. The public may request free CDs that contain the entire report by contacting Ecology at 360-407-6365.
Comments may be mailed or e-mailed through Dec. 1 to Bill Harris, Rayonier project manager at Department of Ecology Southwest Regional Office, P.O. Box 47775, Olympia, WA 98504-7775 or by e-mail to whar461@ecy.wa.gov . Harris may be reached at 360-407-6253.
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Contact: Sandy Howard, public information manager, 360-407-6239
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
