Commission Agenda to Include Alcoa, Evergreen Purchase Agreements

[Chief]

VANCOUVER, Wash. – The Vancouver Port Commission will consider a staff recommendation to execute proposed purchase and sale agreements for the Alcoa Aluminum and Evergreen Aluminum LLC properties at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 11.

The open public meeting, which will also include another 13 action items as the last meeting of the commission in 2007, begins at 9:30 a.m. at the port’s Commission Room (3103 NW Lower River Road, Vancouver), and will be carried live on CVTV Channel 21. The CVTV coverage will also be streamed live online at www.cvtv.org.

Among the 14 action items are: the port’s strategic plan; two proposed property acquisitions; five leases with port tenants; rail project actions; grading, construction and contract extensions; and a resolution in honor of outgoing Commissioner Arch Miller.

Strategic Plan

The port’s strategic plan for 2008-2017 is complete and will be presented to the commissioners for their approval. The plan will be officially implemented upon commission approval.

Property Acquisitions

Purchasing the Alcoa & Evergreen properties is critical to the port as it looks to expand rail service to accommodate business growth for its current customers – particularly those who use rail service – and to add industrial property that is shovel-ready for new customers to move to the port.

At Tuesday’s commission meeting, staff will ask Commissioners Arch Miller, Brian Wolfe and Nancy Baker to authorize Executive Director Larry Paulson to sign a purchase and sale agreement (PSA) with Evergreen Aluminum LLC to purchase its property for an amount not to exceed $24.5 million. The property amounts to 110.87 acres.

Commissioners will also be asked by staff to authorize Paulson to sign an addendum to the purchase and sale the port had previously signed with Alcoa Aluminum, which would finalize the terms of the agreement. The Port Commission approved the PSA with Alcoa on June 26, 2007 pursuant to the passage of its proposed Industrial Development District (IDD) levy, which failed in the August primary election. After the levy’s defeat, the port and Alcoa continued negotiating and reached a proposed addendum to the PSA, which is what the Commission will consider at this meeting. Purchase price of the 107.3-acre Alcoa property is $23,750,000.

Leases

Included among the leases that staff will ask the commission to authorize action on are: ground lease for Kinder-Morgan (bulk cargo handler); a sub-lease to Kinder-Morgan; a lease amendment with MSI; and a construction lease for schedule one of the West Vancouver Freight Access rail project.

Rail Project Actions

The commission will be asked to authorize Paulson to sign a Rights of Entry Agreement and a Construction and Maintenance Agreement for the West Vancouver Freight Access Project, and to authorize Paulson to sign a contract to begin construction on Schedule 1 of the rail project.

Parcel 8 Early Grading

Staff will ask the commission to authorize Paulson to sign a contract to commence work on the early grading of Parcel 8 located on the former Rufener Farm property north of Lower River Road from the currently-developed port property. This project will prepare the property as shovel-ready, light industrial property.

Building 2401 Floor

Staff will ask the commission to authorize Paulson to sign a contract to begin construction of a new concrete floor in the port’s Building 2401 – currently leased by IMS Electronics Recycling.

Contract Extensions

Staff will present to the commission a list of contracts that are due for extension into 2008, and request that commissioners authorize moving forward with the contract extensions.

Arch Miller Resolution

In honor of 18 years of service by Port Commissioner Arch Miller, who will be leaving the commission at the end of the year, Commissioners Wolfe and Baker will be asked to approve Resolution 16-2007 in honor of Arch Miller. A brief presentation will accompany the resolution action.

Port Commission meetings are normally scheduled on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, and since the fourth Tuesday of December is on a holiday, the Commission will combine two meetings into one with the December 11 meeting.

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.

– POV –

Contact: Nelson Holmberg

(360) 992-1107 – direct

(360) 518-2553 – mobile

email: nholmberg@PortVanUSA.com

[karma]

Yep, full steam ahead!! Ya want to talk about environmental concerns in development of this flood site??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Agreement reached on river cleanup strategy for Vancouver's Alcoa site

OLYMPIA - The Washington Department of Ecology today announced a preliminary agreement with Alcoa over cleanup goals that the company will achieve when removing polluted sediments from the Columbia River next fall. The agreement will be finalized when the cleanup action plan, being developed this winter, is complete.

The agreement calls for Alcoa to dredge up to 95 percent of known polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) contamination from the river bed at its former smelter site near Vancouver. When the dredging is finished and the ecosystem has had time to restore itself, the residual contamination should not exceed 98 parts per billion (ppb) PCBs.

Current sampling indicates most of the contamination in the top layers of the riverbed generally ranges from 100 ppb to 1,000 ppb PCBs. There is a hot spot with a concentration as high as 300,000 ppb, with some contamination as deep as three feet.

Ecology and Alcoa agree that dredging is the best option for reducing the level of contamination. The cleanup goal represents the residual level of contamination that will remain after dredging is complete, sand is brought in to fill holes and the site returns to equilibrium.

"This will be a very aggressive cleanup to remove as much contamination as physically possible," said Carol Kraege, whose Ecology team oversees the Alcoa site. "Unfortunately, the Columbia River is besieged with contamination from many sources. This cleanup is just one of many important steps in the long-term efforts to restore the river's health."

PCBs can cause a variety of health effects and have been linked to cancer. The dredging will lessen the risk to human health and will be protective of wildlife.

Alcoa recently announced its intention to dig and dispose of all clams on its site as soon as feasible. High levels of PCBs were found in clam tissue collected around the Alcoa property and throughout the river.
While harvesting freshwater clams in the Columbia is illegal, some have expressed concern that people may ignore the prohibition and dig for clams.

Then Alcoa will complete the remedial investigation and a feasibility study report for the entire site by the end of December. In early January, Alcoa will submit the sediment cleanup engineering plans for Ecology review and approval. Ecology will also begin work on a cleanup action plan for the site, including the sediments. The public will have an opportunity to comment on the cleanup action plan when the draft is published in early spring.

To learn more about Alcoa's cleanup progress to date:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/industrial/pdf/AlcoaFocusSheet.pdf.

[Chief]

Flood site?? I'll be that site is more secure than I-5 is through Centralia...

[Waterbuffalo]

Any one one want to take a polar bear swim in the winter rains in the Chehalis River during flood stage?

I'd say my sentiments are that I would want to see the Alcoa site put back into production with all and the full remediation of it. Looks like the Port is doing that..

[Chief]

It's importatnt to note here that the Commission is only considering the purchase of Alcoa, NOT the Evergreen aluminum site, at least not yet. The cleanup is not complete at Evergreen, therefore the purchase will be considered at a later date.

I agree WB, the sooner that site is put back into service, the better...

Tuesday is going to be a big meeting date for the Port, as it is the last meeting for the year, and is also Arch Miller's last official meeting as a Port Commissioner.

[Waterbuffalo]

Sounds interesting.. Hve to remind myself to hook up the television and watch on CVTV..

[Chief]

bttt....

Today is the last regular meeting of the Commissioners of Port of Vancouver for the yrea, and marks Arch Miller's final meeting as a Commissioner as well. Tune in to CVTV to watch it live, or join me at the Port offices at 9:30 to watch it in person...

;D

[Waterbuffalo]

Will try...

[Chief]

An extended session today at the Port of Vancouver. The biggest agenda item was the presentation of the purchase agreements for the Alcoa and Evergreen properties. It took about 2 hours to get through agenda item 2 (Alcoa). This was the most comprehensive presenation by Staff that I have seen yet on those properties. In particular, Environmental Director Patty Boyden detailed the ongoing list of years long efforts by the Port of Vancouver, and why that uniquely qualifies the Port to be in control of both of those properties.

I cannot begin to summarize the technical details of what is involved on either property. I urge anyone who has an interest in understanding this issue to view the CVTV video of this meeting. There is more information packed into that presentation than I could ever convery here. There will be press releases later from the Port, I will post them and we can discuss them too.

Commissioner-Elect Oliver was there today, and once again exercized his right to remain silent.

Commissioners Baker and Wolfe presented Arch Miller with a framed resolution, honoring his many years of service, and reviewing the amazing changes that have taken place at the Port of Vancouver since Arch joined the Commission some 18 years ago. Pretty amazing track record, and I have no doubt we will be hearing more from Arch Miller in the near future. His leadership role in the Community is changing, but is certainly not going away...

Details to follow, but if you reviewed the Agenda, there were no surprizes. This meeting is an important milestone to mark, and we need a hotlink to the CVTV coverage as soon as they get it up...

[Waterbuffalo]

Expect 24 hours after it was taped for them to have an online video version on the CVTV site.