Site and cleanup history

History

Klallam settlement

There was a Klallam village, called I’e’nis, on the eastern bank of Ennis Creek. I’e’nis was one of more than 30 Klallam villages in the region. In the early 1800s the total population of the Tribe was as high as 10,000. After introduced diseases swept through the Tribe in the 1850s, only a few residents of I’e’nis remained. Some of the survivors continued to live on the beaches of Port Angeles Harbor until the 1930s. In 1937, the United States purchased land for what would become the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s reservation at the mouth of the Elwha River. The government relocated Tribal members from the harbor to that land.

The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe maintains a strong presence at the harbor. They harvest aquatic resources under their treaty rights. They also work to restore the shoreline and aquatic habitat, and to protect cultural resources and remains of their ancestors at I’e’nis and Tse-whitzen, another major historical Klallam village located at the base of Ediz Hook.

The first mills

The Puget Sound Cooperative Colony built a sawmill in 1887. The mill was the economic base of the colony and contributed to the rise of Port Angeles. The town gradually absorbed members of the colony, and there were disputes over business profits. By 1893 the colony had abandoned the mill.

In 1917 the U.S. Government built a new sawmill on the site to mill spruce wood for building aircraft. However, the success of wooden aircraft proved to be limited, and the mill sat idle until it was purchased by Olympic Forest Products in 1929, who rebuilt it as a pulp mill.

Rayonier pulp mill

Rayonier purchased the mill in the 1930s and operated it until February 1997. They used an ammonia-based acid sulfite process to produce pulp for specialty markets. Buyers incorporated Rayonier’s pulp into things like photographic film, high-impact plastic, fabric, synthetic leather, and disposable diapers.

While it ran, the mill released harmful substances into the environment. These included chemicals like petroleum, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lead, dioxins/furans, and arsenic.

Investigation and cleanup

In 1997 and 1998, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigated the site. They tested the soil, groundwater, and both freshwater and marine sediments. Based on their findings, the EPA decided that the site should be listed on the National Priorities List (superfund) for cleanup. However, the EPA agreed to defer this cleanup to Washington’s Department of Ecology after discussions with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Ecology. Ecology has overseen cleanup of the site since 2000.

Ecology told Rayonier that they are potentially liable for cleaning up the contamination in 2001. Rayonier accepted this potential liability the same year.

Over the years, Ecology and Rayonier have made multiple legal agreements. These agreements outline what Rayonier must do to clean up the site.

Lawsuit

In November 2005, while creating cleanup plans, Rayonier filed a lawsuit against Ecology over the way we were calculating cleanup levels for certain chemicals. We reached a settlement with Rayonier in April 2006, agreeing on a new method to assess contamination. That year Ecology started revising the Models Toxics Control Act (MTCA) rule to clarify the process for setting cleanup levels. The revised rule went into effect in 2007.

Studying a complex site

To clean up a large, complex site like Rayonier Mill, we need to understand the site and the contaminants. Learning where contaminants are, what they are, and how they interact with the site is key to planning a permanent cleanup that will protect living things. Learn more about these studies on the What We’ve Learned page.