A Call for Clean Water, Air, Safety & Transparency

Why We Are Signing This Petition

These are not rumors. Every fact below comes from a government document — a permit issued by Washington State, a study by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, a federal health consultation, or a federal Clean Air Act enforcement record.

• On May 26, 2026, eleven workers were killed at a kraft paper mill in Longview, Washington when a chemical storage tank imploded. To our knowledge, Washington State confirmed that no agency had inspected that tank. Port Townsend Paper Corporation operates the same type of equipment. We do not know when it was last independently inspected.
• Three cancer-causing chemicals — benzo(a)anthracene, chlordane, and pentachlorophenol — are present in the treated wastewater discharged into Port Townsend Bay every single day. The company's own 2025 permit confirms this. Enforceable limits are not required until 2029.
• The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife found in 2014 that crab tissue contamination in our bay and surrounding waterways is statistically comparable to contamination levels found in Seattle and Tacoma. A human health risk assessment was supposed to follow. It has never been completed.
• Shellfish harvesting is closed in the area of the bay where the facility discharges its wastewater. This closure is acknowledged in the facility's own state-issued permit.
• The Washington State Department of Health concluded that it cannot complete a community health study around this facility because required environmental and emissions data is missing. That data has not been provided.
• The facility paid a $342,000 federal Clean Air Act settlement in June 2019 for documented air quality violations. The state issued an environmental approval for a major operational expansion the same month.
• Seven questions about air emissions, water discharge, and hazardous materials on a required government environmental checklist from 2018 were left unanswered. They have not been answered since.
• The facility discharges approximately 9.6 million gallons per day of treated wastewater into Port Townsend Bay. Monitoring relies primarily on the company reporting its own results, with independent state verification approximately once per year.
• Port Townsend Bay connects directly to Admiralty Inlet, the San Juan Islands, Puget Sound, and ultimately the North Pacific Ocean. Contamination discharged into our bay does not stay local — it moves through our waterways and across one of the most ecologically significant marine systems in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
• Port Townsend sits on the Cascadia Subduction Zone. A major earthquake could rupture chemical storage tanks, break the wastewater treatment system, and release toxic and hazardous chemicals into the bay and surrounding community before any emergency response could arrive. No public seismic vulnerability assessment of this facility has ever been released.

What We Are Asking For

These are reasonable requests. Every one of them is achievable. None requires closing the facility.

1. Inspect the chemical storage tanks — now.

   An independent, third-party structural engineer should inspect every pressure vessel, white liquor tank, and chemical storage tank at the facility. The results should be shared publicly and with East Jefferson Fire Rescue. Eleven workers died in Longview because no one was required to look. It should be required now.

2. Install real-time monitoring equipment and share the data publicly.

   Continuous monitors on the exhaust stacks and at the property fence line should measure air quality around the clock. Continuous sensors at the discharge pipe should measure what enters our bay and waterways every 15 minutes. All readings should be posted on a public website — updated continuously — so any resident can check conditions at any time from any phone or computer.

3. Complete the missing health and environmental studies.

   The Washington State Department of Health needs the required environmental and emissions data it identified as missing so it can complete the community health study. The human health risk assessment based on the 2014 crab and surrounding waterway contamination data needs to be completed. The seven unanswered questions about air emissions, water discharge, and hazardous materials on the 2018 government environmental checklist need to be answered.

4. Tell the community what chemicals are on site — in plain language.

   A complete list of hazardous chemicals stored at the facility should be provided to Jefferson County Emergency Management, East Jefferson Fire Rescue, and the public — updated whenever storage changes. This is already required by federal law. It should be done proactively, not only when someone files a public records request.

5. Assess earthquake risk and prepare a public emergency plan.

   A qualified engineer should evaluate how the facility's tanks, pipes, and treatment systems would perform during a major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. The results should be shared with Jefferson County Emergency Management, the public, and surrounding waterway communities. An updated emergency response plan reflecting that assessment should be provided to East Jefferson Fire Rescue.

6. Stop waiting until 2029 to address cancer-causing chemicals in the bay and waterways.

   The company's own permit does not require enforceable limits on three confirmed cancer-causing chemicals until 2029. We ask Port Townsend Paper Corporation to commit now to achieving those limits as soon as possible — and to report publicly on progress every three months.

7. Create a Community Advisory Panel with real authority.

   A standing panel of Port Townsend residents, tribal representatives, and independent scientists should meet quarterly with facility management. The panel should have direct access to all monitoring data and the ability to request independent testing at company expense. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe hold treaty fishing rights in Port Townsend Bay and surrounding waterways. They must have a seat at the table.

8. Publish an annual plain-language environmental and safety report.

   Every year, Port Townsend Paper Corporation should publish a report written for ordinary residents — not lawyers or engineers — that honestly accounts for its air emissions, water discharge, safety incidents, inspection findings, compliance status, and its impacts on our bay and waterways. It should be available in print at the Port Townsend Public Library and online.

We are not asking for the facility to close. We are asking for it to be safe, healthy, honest, and environmentally accountable. Port Townsend Paper Corporation is owned by Atlas Holdings of Greenwich, Connecticut — a company whose portfolio companies generate more than $26 billion in revenue annually. The resources to do these things exist. What has been missing is the requirement, and the will.

We are signing this petition because we believe our community deserves to breathe clean air, drink clean water, eat fish from a healthy bay and waterways, and live without fear of an industrial disaster that nobody saw coming because nobody was required to look.