PORT GAMBLE, Wash. (AP) - The state appeals court is shifting some of the responsibility for the Port Gamble mill cleanup to the state.
The Kitsap Sun reports ( https://bit.ly/2iuwRf1 ) that, in a decision this week, the state Court of Appeals reversed a superior court decision that had absolved the state Department of Natural Resources of responsibility for pollution caused by mill operators Pope & Talbot. It’s unclear how much financial responsibility DNR will now bear for the cleanup.
Pope Resources, a Poulsbo-based offshoot of Pope & Talbot, had been held responsible for contamination at the mill site and Gamble Bay after Pope & Talbot went bankrupt in 2007.
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Pope Resources sued DNR in 2014, arguing that the agency didn’t do enough to halt the mill’s pollution.
The company is paying about $20 million to remove more than 70,000 cubic yards of contaminated shore sediment and wood waste piled in and around the bay. The two-year-long cleanup is set to conclude in early 2017.
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