PORT ANGELES — The head of the Port Angeles Harbor-Works Development Authority told about 50 people that he doesn’t intend to use public funds to pay for the cleanup of the Rayonier Inc. property on the Port Angeles waterfront during a public forum Tuesday.

If public funds do have to be used to pay for the cleanup, Harbor-Works Executive Director Jeff Lincoln was confident that future development of the property would cover that cost.

At the forum, representatives of the city and Port of Port Angeles pledged to work with the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and protect its cultural resources at the site.

Many people at the forum asked the panel — made up of Lincoln, Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers, Port of Port Angeles commission President John Calhoun and city Public Works and Utilities Director Glenn Cutler — questions about the environmental cleanup of the 75-acre Rayonier property on the east end of Port Angeles Harbor.

The property is contaminated by PCBs, dioxins and other contaminates from a Rayonier pulp mill, which closed in 1997 after operating for 68 years.

The city created Harbor-Works, with support from the port, on May 20, 2008 to undertake or assist in the cleanup of the Rayonier site and direct its redevelopment.

Lincoln began his job as executive director of the public development authority June 1.

Incentive for Rayonier

While addressing concerns from the audience that Rayonier will be taken off the hook from its responsibilities, Lincoln said that developing a plan for the future use of the property will help give Rayonier enough incentive to get the property cleaned, and continue to pay for the cleanup, in order to relieve itself of the property.

If Harbor-Works has such a plan, then, Lincoln said, he can work with Ecology and Rayonier to bring the long-stalled, 9-year-long cleanup to an end — possibly within six years.

But he added he can’t make any promises, and asked for the audience’s support.

“What I’m asking the community to do is, let us try,” he said.

Lincoln said he will meet with Rayonier representatives next week and next month to discuss the property.

He’s hoping that within 12 to 14 months that Harbor-Works will be ready to acquire the property if chooses to do so.

He said after the forum that he couldn’t estimate how much the property — assessed at $5.2 million — would cost Harbor-Works, which is funded by the city and port.

Acquiring contaminated property will make Harbor-Works liable, along with Rayonier, for its cleanup.

Tribe involvement

On the involvement of the tribe in the future use of the Rayonier property, Calhoun said, “there are archaeological and cultural history and values there from many ancient Native American villages, and we want to protect those . . . the tribe has a cultural role which holds both legal and a moral authority over the priorities of that site.”

The tribe is a partner in the cleanup of the property with the state Department of Ecology. The property is the former site of a Klallam village, Y’Innis. Human remains and tribal artifacts remain buried under portions of it.

Calhoun also said the port wants to see at least some of the Rayonier property have an industrial use.

In response to one question, Lincoln told the forum attendees that although the tribe will be a partner of Harbor-Works, the tribe won’t have a seat on the board — something that Frances Charles, tribal chairwoman, said the tribe wants.

Since the tribe is a regulator in the cleanup, “it might be difficult to have a joint board member on the board,” Lincoln said.

“I like to view them as a partner, rather than part of this organization.”

After creating Harbor-Works, the city revealed that another reason for forming the public development authority was to help it acquire a 5 million-gallon water tank that still stands on the mill site from Rayonier at no cost — in exchange for the city taking part in the cleanup of the property through Harbor-Works. No deals on such a transaction have been made.

The water tank would be used by the city to store untreated sewage during heavy rainfall in order to keep it from overflowing into marine waters.

The city is under an Ecology order to nearly eliminate overflow events by 2016 or face a fine of up to $10,000 a day. Potential costs for acquisition of the tank haven’t been discussed publicly by Rayonier or the city. Rayonier executives have said they won’t sell the tank to the city unless Harbor-Works acquires the rest of the property.

________

Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.