This research has been compiled to the best of our ability from named public sources. If you believe any fact presented here is incorrect or incomplete, please contact safewaterandair@gmail.com so it can be reviewed and corrected.
Mission
One Sentence
We are Port Townsend and Jefferson County residents demanding safe water, clean air, and honest accountability from Port Townsend Paper Company (PTPC), its regulators, and the officials who represent us.
One Paragraph
Safe Water and Air Port Townsend is a community group of residents working to protect the people, the water, the air, and the bay of Port Townsend and Jefferson County. We are advocates and activists. We work through official channels and we push when the system falls short. We do not seek the closure of PTPC or harm to its workforce. We seek something more fundamental: the safety and health of everyone who lives and works here, a protected environment, full transparency, and real accountability through enforcing existing laws and enacting new ones where they are needed.
Full Mission Statement
Safe Water and Air Port Townsend is a community group of Port Townsend and Jefferson County residents working to protect our water, our air, our bay, and the people who live and work here. We are both advocates and activists. Advocates, because we work through official channels, with regulators, elected officials, and the law. Activists, because when the system falls short, it is the community's job to push it further.
We do not seek the closure of PTPC or harm to its workforce. We seek something more fundamental: laws and enforcement that actually protect people. We do not believe compliance with current law is enough. A federal health agency found carcinogens in the air near the facility. The state's own regulators have confirmed open violations.
The Longview disaster of May 26, 2026 exposed a regulatory gap that existing law does not close: no agency at any level of government has authority to independently inspect white liquor storage tanks. Compliance with inadequate law is not safety. Getting this right means enforcing the laws we have and enacting new ones where they are needed.
Our Focus
The safety and health of the people who live and work here, our community.
The safety of workers inside the facility.
Emergency preparedness that is honest about gaps and ready to close them.
Clean water, clean air, and a protected bay and drinking water supply.
Full transparency from the facility, its regulators, and the officials who represent us.
Real accountability through enforcing existing laws and enacting new ones where they fall short.
Notification when violations occur and a real mechanism to ensure community input is heard and acted on.
We believe the moment following the Longview disaster is exactly the right time to get this right, for the community, for the workers, and for the bay.
Strategy
We pursue change through every available channel simultaneously. We do not wait for one track to fail before starting another. Regulatory engagement, legislative advocacy, public education, media attention, and coalition building reinforce each other. A complaint filed with a regulator carries more weight when a community is watching. A petition to change a law carries more weight when violations are already on the public record. If the mill, lawmakers, and regulators do not respond with good faith engagement, we will use every legal means available to us to protect our community.
Track 1: Regulatory Accountability
We engage directly with the agencies that regulate PTPC, primarily the Washington State Department of Ecology, and hold them accountable for enforcing the laws already on the books. This includes filing formal complaints, making public records requests, attending regulatory meetings, submitting comments on permits, and corresponding directly with regulators on open violations, permit conditions, and enforcement gaps. Where existing regulatory tools are unused, we ask why. The Source Emission Reduction Plan provision under Washington Administrative Code 173-435-040 is one example of an existing mechanism that appears never to have been applied to this facility.
Track 2: Rulemaking Petition
Where existing law does not meet the standard of safe water and air, we will petition the Washington State Department of Ecology for rulemaking under Revised Code of Washington 34.05.330. The agency must respond within 60 days. If denied, we appeal to the Governor. If that fails, we escalate to the Joint Administrative Rules Review Committee. The most immediate target is the white liquor storage tank inspection gap: no agency at any level of government currently has authority to independently inspect these tanks. The Longview disaster of May 26, 2026 demonstrated exactly what that gap costs.
Track 3: Legislative Change
Where rulemaking is insufficient, we pursue legislative change at the state level. Our legislative priorities are specific. First, chemicals that fall below federal reporting thresholds but are present in the air and water at levels that a federal health agency has found to exceed cancer risk guidelines need enforceable emission limits, not just monitoring. Second, chemicals not on the federal Risk Management Program's regulated substance list, including white liquor, need to be brought under a state inspection and safety framework.
Third, permit thresholds and discharge limits not updated to reflect current science on carcinogens and chronic low-level exposure need to be revisited. Fourth, the current system allows a facility to self-certify compliance with violations in some circumstances without independent verification. That needs to change. The goal is not regulation for its own sake. The goal is that the standards actually protect people.
Track 4: Public Education and Media
An informed community is harder to ignore. We publish accurate, sourced information about what the facility releases into the air and water, what regulators know, and what the law does and does not require. We use social media, local press, and direct community outreach to reach residents who are affected but not yet engaged. We cite only named primary sources. We do not overstate what the evidence shows. We believe credibility is our most important asset.
Track 5: Complaint Campaign
We encourage every resident who smells the mill to file a dated complaint with the Washington State Department of Ecology within 24 hours. A single complaint is easy to overlook. A sustained, dated record from many people is not. We make filing a complaint as easy as possible and help residents keep their own logs, including symptoms if any are experienced.
Track 6: Coalition Building
We build relationships with organizations and communities that share our interests, including the Jamestown S'Klallam and Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribes, who hold treaty fishing rights in Port Townsend Bay; shellfish farmers whose livelihoods depend on clean water; environmental organizations with relevant expertise; and labor advocates who care about worker safety inside the facility.
Track 7: Community Voice
We convert awareness into action by building an email list of engaged supporters, organizing participation in public meetings and comment periods, and ensuring that residents have a real and documented presence in every regulatory and legislative process that affects them.
Tactics
Immediate (Now Through July 8, 2026)
Attend the July 8 Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting at East Jefferson Fire Rescue Station 6, 9193 Rhody Drive, Chimacum, 2:00 PM. Bring submitted letters as reference. Listen to what Ecology, East Jefferson Fire Rescue, and PTPC say on the record. Document everything.
Push the Change.org petition to 1,000 signatures. Share on Facebook, Nextdoor, and directly with contacts. Current count: approximately 542.
Post on Facebook and Nextdoor. Direct residents to file odor complaints with Mady Lyon at Mady.Lyon@ecy.wa.gov or (360) 628-3250 within 24 hours of any odor event, with date, time, and symptoms logged. If it happens every day, report it every day.
Finalize the group name, mission statement, and Facebook group at the July 1 meeting at Better Living Through Coffee, 1:30 PM.
Watch for the Ecology Public Disclosure Office tracking number for public records request P030509-063026 by July 6. Follow up with Connie Naotsuka at cnao461@ecy.wa.gov if it does not arrive.
Short Term (July Through September 2026)
Build the email list. Decide on a platform: Action Network, NationBuilder, or self-hosted with Mailchimp or Brevo. Contact Jim Surgent. Convert petition signers into active advocates.
Draft and file the Washington State petition to Ecology under Revised Code of Washington 34.05.330 targeting the white liquor storage tank inspection gap. Use Nina Bell's 2018 sample petition as a structural model. Have support letters ready before filing, since the 60-day response window begins immediately.
Review the amended compliance order and Order 2892-05AQ Modification 2 when they arrive from Ecology on or before July 29. Assess what they actually require and whether they close the outstanding violations.
Begin outreach to the Jamestown S'Klallam and Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribes about Local Emergency Planning Committee participation and Port Townsend Bay discharge concerns.
Identify a sympathetic state legislator to begin conversations about the white liquor inspection gap and unregulated chemical thresholds. Representative Tharinger is already in the correspondence record.
Develop the website. At minimum: how to file an odor complaint, a fact sheet about the mill, the petition link, and contact information for the group.
Brief Conrad Swanson at the Seattle Times more fully. He has already named David in coverage. A fuller briefing could generate a more substantial story.
Request a meeting with Mady Lyon or James DeMay in person or by phone to discuss the Source Emission Reduction Plan question and the outstanding violations before the records arrive.
Medium Term (Fall 2026 Through the 2027 Legislative Session)
Prepare legislative materials for the 2027 Washington State legislative session: a one-page summary of the white liquor inspection gap, the unregulated chemical findings, and the self-certification problem. Tie each to a specific documented primary source.
Pursue the rulemaking petition escalation path if Ecology denies the initial petition: appeal to the Governor, then to the Joint Administrative Rules Review Committee.
Engage the Thriving Earth Exchange sulfur pollution assessment led by Jaime Duyck and Derek Firenze as findings emerge. Incorporate verified results into public materials.
Assess whether the Olympic Gravity Water System rate and operational accountability track warrants a separate public campaign or integrates into the existing one. Key public moment: August 10 City of Port Townsend Council workshop on rate review.
Revisit the petition text, mission statement, strategy, and tactics after the July 8 Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting and the July 29 records arrival. Both will likely change what we know and what we can credibly say.
Ongoing
Every public claim traces to a named primary source read in the current session. No exceptions.
Every sent letter and regulatory response gets added to the archive. Version numbers on everything.
Every odor event gets reported to Mady Lyon within 24 hours. Every report gets logged, including symptoms if any.
Every reply from a regulator, official, or agency gets reviewed, logged, and assessed for what it confirms, what it contradicts, and what it leaves open.