Timeline

1887	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.
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.
2002	Ecology and Rayonier enter into an Agreed Order to conduct a Remedial Investigation for the marine portion of the site.
2004	Ecology and Rayonier enter into a second Agreed Order to conduct a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study for the uplands portion of the site.
2007	Ecology’s Toxics Cleanup Program takes over management of the cleanup and negotiates a new Agreed Order to complete investigations and evaluate alternatives for interim action in the Study Area.