Environmental Projects

History

The Port’s KPly site is located at 439 Marine Drive in Port Angeles. The site has a long and rich history of plywood mills and jobs for the people of Clallam County. However during the plywood mill years, the operations of those mills contaminated the groundwater and the soil.

The known contaminants are diesel, oil, gasoline, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes and pentachlorophenol. These liquids are found in petroleum projects and in some manufacturing processes.

Additionally, Rayonier specifically operated a plywood mill at the KPly site from 1971 to 1989. During that time, a hydraulic oil leak contaminated a portion of the site, too. Rayonier is under an order to address the hydraulic oil contamination.

Past Clean-up Activities

The Port of Port Angeles entered into an agreed order with the Department of Ecology to separate the KPly site from the Marine Trades Area site in October of 2012. Investigations have shown that the contamination on the KPly site and the Marine Trades Area are from separate sources.

The agreed order of October 2012 required the Port of Port Angeles to do a partial clean-up and develop a remedial investigation report, feasibility study and preliminary draft clean-up action plan for the KPly site.

In 2013, the Port of Port Angeles completed the partial clean-up where they tore down the former mill structures and stabilized the KPly site.

Current Clean-up Activities

Under the cleanup action plan and agreed order, the Port of Port Angeles will:

• Remove the polluted soil. They will remove and reuse the clean soil on top of the polluted soil.
• Use bioremediation to clean up polluted groundwater. They will add nutrients and oxygen to excavated areas before adding clean soil. The nutrients and oxygen will encourage natural organisms to grow. These organisms will then use contaminants for food, which will break down the contaminants.This will result in lower contaminant levels.
• Monitor soil and groundwater until cleanup standards are met.

The Port began clean-up process in August 2015 and progress is underway!

FAQs

Question: How long will the KPly site clean-up take?
Answer: The KPly site clean-up project will be completed at the end of November 2015.

Question: How much will the KPly site clean-up project cost?
Answer: The clean-up project will cost $6 million dollars. The State of Washington Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) funds have provided $2 million toward the project and an additional $1.5 million has been requested from the State’s MTCA funds. The Port’s insurance and other Potentially Liable Persons (PLPs) have also been contributing toward the project’s cost.

Question: Why does it smell like gas near the KPly clean-up site?
Answer: The site smells of gasoline because the clean-up project involves removing petroleum contaminated soil.

Question: How much material is being removed and where does the contaminated soil go?
Answer: Approximately 50,000 tons of contaminated soil will be removed from the site which equates to roughly 3,125 dumptruck loads. The contaminated soil is transported to a lined landfill in central Oregon.

Question: What does the Port of Port Angeles plan to do with the site once it’s cleaned up?
Answer: The Port plans to turn the 18 acres into a marine trades industrial park.