{"id":31577,"date":"2016-01-20T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/news\/city-council-supports-port-gamble-court-effort-that-could-influence-port-angeles-harbor-cleanup\/"},"modified":"2016-01-20T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T08:01:00","slug":"city-council-supports-port-gamble-court-effort-that-could-influence-port-angeles-harbor-cleanup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/news\/city-council-supports-port-gamble-court-effort-that-could-influence-port-angeles-harbor-cleanup\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council supports Port Gamble court effort that could influence Port Angeles Harbor cleanup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORT ANGELES &#8212; For city officials, the road to financial help in cleaning up west Port Angeles Harbor might point 55 miles southeast to Port Gamble Bay.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The bay is central to a legal challenge by a company that last year unsuccessfully sued the state Department of Natural Resources in Kitsap County Superior Court to help fund cleanup of the inlet there.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Pope Resources LLP, the Poulsbo-based enterprise created by Port Gamble Bay mill operator Pope &amp; Talbot, has appealed the June 8, 2015, ruling to the state Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Pope insists that DNR, as the manager of state-owned aquatic lands on which the pollution lies, should help pay cleanup costs as a &#8220;potentially liable party,&#8221; or PLP.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Port Angeles city officials are issuing a similar DNR-bears-responsibility refrain.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The City Council unanimously decided Jan. 5 to join in a friend-of-the-court, or amicus, brief with Georgia-Pacific LLC supporting Pope&#8217;s efforts at no cost to the city.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The Department of Ecology designated the city, Georgia-Pacific, the Port of Port Angeles, Nippon Paper Industries USA, forest services company Merrill &amp; Ring, DNR and Owens Corning as PLPs in the pending west Port Angeles Harbor cleanup.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>DNR and Owens Corning are not participating in the cleanup.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Ecology samples from sediment in the westernmost inner harbor area near Nippon showed the presence of metals, mercury and dioxins.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Nippon is being held responsible for some of the legacy pollution to the harbor as the owner of the Ediz Hook pulp mill, which has been in operation for decades.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>City Finance Director Byron Olson said Tuesday the city has committed at least $200,000 &#8212; part of which includes funds from previous insurance carriers &#8212; to the cost of Ecology&#8217;s ongoing state remedial investigation of the western harbor.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The review will determine the extent and magnitude of pollution, evaluate potential impacts on human health and the environment, and evaluate cleanup alternatives.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Rebecca Lawson, southwest regional section manager for Ecology&#8217;s toxics cleanup program, said Tuesday the investigation could be completed by December.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>City Attorney Bill Bloor said Tuesday that if Pope wins the appeal, the same principle that would make DNR a PLP in Port Gamble could apply to DNR, which manages a portion of the Port Angeles Harbor&#8217;s aquatic lands.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of contamination is in Port Angeles Harbor is located on property that the DNR manages, so they would be a potentially liable party,&#8221; Bloor said.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;There have been many, many instances across the state where the DNR has been a PLP and contributed something to a cleanup.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>But last summer, in an eight-sentence summary-judgment and order, Superior Court Judge Anna M. Laurie sided with DNR.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;[The DNR] is not among the categories of persons alleged by [Pope] liable under the Model Toxics Control Act at the Port Gamble Bay and mill site, and accordingly, is not an &#8216;owner&#8217; or &#8216;operator&#8217; as those terms are defined under RCW70.105D.020,&#8221; Laurie said.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>DNR aquatic lands spokesman Joe Smillie said Tuesday the agency remains &#8220;hopeful&#8221; the Division II Court of Appeals will uphold the Superior Court ruling.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;It is state land managed by us, but we were not engaged in business on it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Bloor said the case could be significant not only for the city but other municipalities with shorelines near or next to DNR land.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;The Superior Court&#8217;s ruling means that DNR can authorize, profit from and ignore polluting activity on its land and then treat the pollution as someone else&#8217;s problem,&#8221; Bloor said in a memo to the City Council.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Ecology also named DNR as a PLP &#8220;on the basis of its ownership and\/or management of aquatic lands,&#8221; according to Bloor&#8217;s memo.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The appeal may take some time to wend its way to a decision.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>DNR&#8217;s response to Pope&#8217;s opening brief is due Dec. 28.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The Port Gamble Bay amicus brief that the city will take part in is due 45 days after DNR&#8217;s response.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Lawson said the Port Angeles remedial investigation has been delayed by Ecology having to apply new sediment management standards.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>They attempt to trace pollution exposure pathways from fish and other sea life to humans to determine the impact on human health.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;Before, the standards were just focused on the benthic, just the harm to critters,&#8221; Lawson said.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>She said a cleanup cost, which could entail dredging or capping polluted areas, has not been determined.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>But the process could be complicated.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;What goes into the western part of the harbor tends to stay there,&#8221; Lawson said.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s part of the reason we are seeing some of the highest levels [of pollution.]&#8221;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>________<\/p>\n<p \/>Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PORT ANGELES &#8212; For city officials, the road to financial help in cleaning up west Port Angeles Harbor might point 55 miles southeast to Port Gamble Bay. The bay is central to a legal challenge by a company that last year unsuccessfully sued the state Department of Natural Resources in Kitsap County Superior Court to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":31578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31577"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}