City, Port of Port Angeles submit harbor clean up plan

PORT ANGELES – The City of Port Angeles has moved a step closer to an environmental cleanup of the western portion of the harbor. Following a five year study, the City and the Port have submitted a Feasability Study to the Department of Ecology to deal with contaminants at the bottom of the harbor.

Besides the City and The Port, the cost of the cleanup, estimated at 32 million dollars over six years, would be shared by Georgia-Pacific, Merrill and Ring, and Nippon, all of whom are seen as industrial contributors to the pollution. But who pays how much? We asked Chris Hartman, Director of Engineering at the Port:

The proposal includes a combination of dredging some pollutants directly from the harbor floor, and covering large areas with a clean sand material, a process known as ‘capping’.

The DOE now has 60 days to respond to the draft plan.