PORT REACHES SETTLEMENT WITH PARTIES OVER FORT VANCOUVER PLYWOOD (8/14/07)

For Immediate Release

VANCOUVER, Wash.-The Vancouver Port Commission today authorized Executive Director Larry Paulson to sign settlement documents with three parties, ending litigation over reimbursement for the environmental cleanup at the former site of Fort Vancouver Plywood. The settlement agreements amount to $1.9 million from the parties.

The property was the site of industrial activities – mostly wood-related manufacturing by Fort Vancouver Plywood and its predecessor Vancouver Plywood – for more than 70 years. The last known industrial operation was a former plywood mill that closed in 1996. Site investigation revealed that the soil had been contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), metals, and pentachlorophenol (PCP) in excess of Washington State Department of Ecology standards.

Under a formal agreement with the Department of Ecology, the port removed the contaminated soil from the site. Under Washington’s Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA), suit was filed in 1998 by the port against Fort Vancouver Plywood, Texaco (as the successor to Vancouver Plywood), and Wausau Insurance for reimbursement of the $6.8 million cost of the complex environmental remediation at the site.

The Department of Ecology has provided grants totaling approximately $3 million toward the cleanup. As a result of its cleanup, the port returned 16 brownfield acres to productive industrial use. Pacific Coast Shredding is currently a tenant of the port on the property, and the port is conducting ongoing groundwater monitoring.

Under terms of the settlements, the port will receive $1.5 million from Fort Vancouver Plywood and Texaco, and $400,000 from Wausau.

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The Port of Vancouver, USA, created by Clark County taxpayers in 1912, is one of the major ports on the Pacific Coast. Its competitive strengths include available land, versatile cargo handling capabilities, vast transportation networks, a dependable labor force and an exceptional level of service to its customers and community.

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