PORT ANGELES – Officials at the Port of Port Angeles are tooting their own horn today, and maybe rightly so, after getting the results of a study they contracted with a consulting firm earlier this year.
The Port asked Olympus Consulting to conduct a preliminary investigation into the social-economic benefits of its waterfront Handling Facility, what most of us call the Log Yard, to better understand the impacts to our local community.
You might not know that the Log Yard is the only industrial facility of its kind in Washington that is owned and operated by a Public Port and relies on barges to move timber to market.
What the study found was that the facility accounts for nearly 2500 jobs on the North Peninsula at an average wage of over $80,000 per year. And then, those jobs support an additional 3300 jobs at an average annual wage of $44,000. So, the impact is huge.
The study also found that using barges instead of long-haul trucking eliminates an estimated 750,000 Truck Miles, resulting in considerably fewer truck accidents and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Port officials said Tuesday that while they were mindful of the benefits the Handling Facility provided to the community, the level of detail the new report provides is evidence that the Log Yard is “irreplaceable”.