The city of Hoquiam agreed on Monday night to purchase a little more than 22 acres along the Hoquiam River.

The city will pay $480,750 for the land, which is split into four parcels. The city council approved it unanimously.

“The purchase of property from the Anderson Middleton Company for the North Shore Levee West Project, specifically to be the mitigation site for wetlands,” said Brian Shay, Hoquiam’s city administrator. “The city has been in negotiations with the Anderson Middleton Company for quite some time to purchase four (parcels) of property out in the Woodlawn area, which is also like out on Broadway towards East Hoquiam, and close to Hoquiam Plywood (Company).”

The area in question is just north of the split between the East Fork Hoquiam River and Hoquiam River.

The property acquisition was “fully planned during the design and permitting of the North Shore Levee West” project, according to city documents. The project will be “fully paid for with grant funding from the Washington state Legislature” and it will be “administered by the Office of the Chehalis Basin.”

Shay spoke about the permitting process.

“All of the permit applications that the city has put in through (State Environmental Policy Act) and (National Environmental Policy Act) … everything is focused on that being the mitigation site,” Shay said. “We’ve designed mitigation for that site, or we’re gonna take a major step back in getting to bid on that project. Our consultants at HDR (Engineering, Inc.) did a great job at negotiating the price. We feel it’s fair.”

The funding will come from the state capital budget allocation that went for the North Shore Levee and the North Shore Levee West project.

“We are on the verge of signing a one-time pass-through grant agreement with the (Washington State) Department of Ecology, on behalf of the Office of Chehalis Basin,” Shay said. “That will give the city of Hoquiam a minimum of $13.2 million for the North Shore Levee West. And so it will 100% be paid for by those grant funds.”

Shay said most of this property is not wetlands but “we’re going to make it wetlands” as part of mitigation because the city is filling wetlands somewhere else.

“There definitely could be some property that could either be sold that we didn’t need, once the mitigation’s done,” Shay said. “Or potentially we provide public access to trails or access to the river. That’s definitely possible once the project is complete.”

Brenda Carlstrom, Hoquiam city councilor, asked if there was anything underground the city would have to be aware of.

Shay said there was already a phase 1 and phase 2 environmental assessment.

“We actually went out and drilled samples on that site and it came back clean,” Shay said. “There’s still a risk, from the study, that there could be contaminants there. If there are, we would have to clean them up. The grant funds that we have to construct the levee project would pay for the clean up.”

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.