Jasper Wood Products, LLC
Location: 37385 Jasper-Lowell Road, Jasper
Activity at this Location: According to documents reviewed by Oregon Clean Water Action Project at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ’s) Eugene office, Jasper Wood Products treats lumber with fire retardant and with preserving agents at this location. Chemicals used in fire retardant treating include phosphoric-formaldehyde, and preserving chemicals used include copper oxide, trivalent chromium, and arsenic pentoxide. Jasper Wood Products also treats some lumber with an anti-mildew chemical called Britewood that contains quatenary ammonium chloride.
Permitted Discharges: Jasper Wood Products’ current Clean Water Act discharge permit was issued by the DEQ on June 11, 2004, expires on December 31, 2008, and allows for the discharge of stormwater runoff from Jasper Wood’s wood treating facility via two discharge points, and the discharge of boiler condensate from one of these points. Jasper’s permit contains numeric limits on the monthly average and daily maximum concentration of total suspended solids, oil & grease, arsenic, copper, and chromium in its discharges, as well as a pH limit. The permit requires Jasper Wood to monitor for these pollutants (along with formaldehyde, phosphorus, and ammonia) each month and submit monitoring results to the DEQ. The permit also requires all treated product to be stored under cover between November 1 and April 30. The full text of Jasper Wood Products’ Clean Water Act discharge permit can be viewed in a PDF document located here.
Where Discharges Go: Discharges from this facility flow into the Middle Fork Willamette River near rivermile 9 (i.e., 9 miles upstream from the confluence of the Middle Fork Willamette River and the Coast Fork Willamette River, which combine to form the mainstem Willamette).
Compliance History: In October of 2006, OCWAP reviewed Jasper Wood Products’ water quality monitoring results going back to January of 2000, and this review revealed various permit violations that occurreed between October of 2004 and July of 2005. OCWAP initiated an enforcement action against Jasper Wood Products concerning these violations on behalf of Sierra Club on January 7, 2006. A summary of this enforcement action can be found at the enforcement section of OCWAP’s Web site.
It appears that Jasper Wood Products’ discharges were in compliance with applicable permit limits from August of 2005 through November of 2006. The pH levels of some discharges in December of 2006 and January, March, April, and May of 2007 were below the permit minimum of 6.5. It appears that Jasper Wood Products’ discharges were in compliance with applicable permit limits between June of 2007 and September of 2008. Copper levels in Jasper Wood Products’ discharges violated permit limits on three occasions during October of 2008, while November discharges were in compliance with permit limits. Jasper Wood Products had discharges in December of 2008 that violated the permit limits for copper and pH, though additional copper testing did not reveal additional copper violations, and background pH levels appear to have been responsible for the pH violation. Sample results for the period January of 2009 through April of 2010 did not reveal any violations of permit discharge limits. Jasper Wood Products reported a pH level below the applicable permit limit in May of 2010, followed by sample results for the period June through September of 2010 that did not reveal any violations of permit discharge limits.
Last updated: Dec 08, 2010