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Timeline
| 1987 |
Puget Sound Cooperative Colony builds a sawmill on the land that is currently the Port Angeles Rayonier Mill site. The mill is abandoned by 1883. |
| 1917 |
The United States Government builds a new sawmill on the site to mill spruce wood for aircraft. |
| 1929 |
Olympic Forest Products purchases the property and develops it into a pulp mill. |
| 1930 |
Rayonier purchases the mill and operates it until 1997. |
| 1997 |
Rayonier closes the mill.
Individuals and several Washington environmental groups petition the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate the mill site, the surrounding
area, and a waste disposal facility.
EPA conducts an extensive inspection and sampling effort to determine whether the site should become part of EPA’s
Superfund program.
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| 1999 |
Ecology and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe sign an agreement giving the tribe an oversight role in the cleanup process. |
| 2000 |
EPA announces it will defer placing the site on the Superfund list and allow it to be cleaned up under the State cleanup process (Model Toxics Control Act).
EPA, Ecology, and the Lower Elwha Tribe sign an agreement outlining the terms for the cleanup.
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| 2004 |
Ecology and Rayonier enter into an Agreed Order to conduct a
Remedial Investigation for the
marine section of the study area.
Ecology and Rayonier enter into a second Agreed Order to conduct a
Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study for the
uplands section of the study area.
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| 2007 |
Ecology’s Toxics Cleanup Program
takes over management of the cleanup and negotiates a new Agreed Order
to continue with cleanup efforts.
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