Court says Pope Resources, not DNR, liable for bay cleanup; appeal planned

Published 6:18 pm Monday, June 15, 2015

POULSBO — A state court has ruled that Pope Resources must pay the costs of cleaning up pollution from a former mill at Port Gamble.

In a June 8 decision, Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Anna M. Laurie dismissed the state Department of Natural Resources as a liable party because it was not an owner or operator under the state’s Model Toxic Pollution Control Act.

“This decision sets an important precedent,” Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark said in a press release issued after the ruling was made.

“The taxpayers of Washington should not be on the hook for cleaning up pollution caused by a private company that profited for more than a century by operating without concern for environmental impacts.”

Jon Rose, president of Olympic Property Group, the real estate arm of Pope Resources, which owns Port Gamble, wrote in an email late June 16 that his company intends to appeal.

Pope Resources filed suit against DNR in December, alleging the agency was liable for some of the cleanup costs because a portion of the mill site included state-owned aquatic lands. Rose has estimated the cleanup costs to be as much as $20 million.

“Regarding the DNR decision in Superior Court, we were of course disappointed but not greatly surprised and not deterred,” Rose wrote. “The judge herself stated that her decision would only be a first step in a long process to get to a final decision. We will be quickly filing an appeal and preparing for the next level of inquiry.

“In the meanwhile, we are still awaiting our permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers so that we can request bids on the clean-up project. The permit process has taken longer than anyone has anticipated. While we are still hopeful we can complete the clean-up in two years, we are certainly getting a late start on this construction season.”

The cleanup was initially expected to begin in July.

A sawmill operated by Pope & Talbot Inc. manufactured forest products in Port Gamble Bay from 1853 to 1995. Those mill operations — which included wood chipping, log rafting, and storage – left wood waste in and near the bay, at some places as thick as 20 feet, according to the Department of Ecology. Tests determined that the wood waste is the source of such contaminants as petroleum hydrocarbons and dioxins, which have turned up in shellfish tissue samples.

In addition, Ecology estimates that 6,000 creosoted pilings remain in the bay, remnants from the mill era.

Pope Resources, an offshoot from Pope & Talbot, reached an agreement with the state Department of Ecology in 2013 to clean up the industrial pollution in Port Gamble Bay. Wood waste will be dredged from  the bay and creosoted pilings and overwater structures removed.

At a recent meeting in Port Gamble, an Ecology official said the Port Gamble Bay cleanup will be the largest piling removal project in Puget Sound.