BY PEPPER FISHER
Port Angeles – It appears that the federal government’s spending cuts will include the NOAA office in Port Angeles.
The Trump administration has directed NOAA to lay off approximately 1,000 workers on top of 1,300 workers that have already been laid off, cutting approximately 20% of the agency’s workforce.
On Friday, the DOGE “Wall of Receipts” website listed 15 lease terminations for Washington state. On that list is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s office on the third floor of the Port Angeles Wharf. It’s the main office of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, one of the country’s most valued ocean areas, and a critical area of marine studies.
We contacted Sanctuary Superintendent Kevin Grant to see if he could confirm his office’s closure, and to ask if they were being shut down completely or whether they would be moving to another location. Grant referred us to Maureen O’Leary, a representative of NOAA, who told us to direct our questions to the U.S. General Services Administration Public Affairs Office and the Department of Commerce Office of Public Affairs (read their response at the end of this story).
Perhaps more concerning to the residents of Port Angeles is whether the apparent shutdown will affect the Marine Sanctuary’s $30 million Marine Discovery Center planned in collaboration with Feiro Marine Life Center, which is slated to begin construction next year on the waterfront.
We took that question to Feiro’s Executive Director Melissa Williams, who had some good news for us.
“Obviously, there is a lot in flux at the federal level right now. We are confident that the changes that they’re making to the leases are not going to impact our partnership moving forward, and the execution of our joint visitor facility, currently planned to be located next to the Field Arts and Events Hall.”
While we had Williams on the phone, we asked for an update on the new facility, which she described as a combination aquarium and science center.
“Yeah, the facility is still in the design phase. We are actively working through the archaeological survey. We’ve signed a contract for that. We have exhibit designers coming at the end of the month for a big workshop. And we also are still working on fundraising for the building construction, which is currently estimated to start in mid-2026.”
(The following is the response we received to our specific questions about the Port Angeles office from a GSA spokesperson: “Acting Administrator Ehikian’s vision for GSA includes reducing our deferred maintenance liabilities, supporting the return to office of federal employees, and taking advantage of a stronger private/government partnership in managing the workforce of the future. GSA is reviewing all options to optimize our footprint and building utilization. A component of our space consolidation plan will be the termination of many soft term leases. To the extent these terminations affect public facing facilities and/or existing tenants, we are working with our agency partners to secure suitable alternative space. In many cases this will allow us to increase space utilization and obtain improved terms.”
(Graphic: Proposed Marine Discovery Center)