OCWAP Enforcement Action Summary:
Jasper Wood Products
In October of 2005, OCWAP reviewed water quality monitoring results going back to January of 2000 for Jasper Wood Products at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ’s) Eugene office. OCWAP’s review revealed violations of the pollutant discharge limits in Jasper Wood Products’ Clean Water Act permit, including the limits for total suspended solids, arsenic, copper, chromium, and pH. The violations identified by OCWAP occurred between October of 2004 and July of 2005. On January 7, 2006 OCWAP sent Jasper Wood Products a letter on behalf of Sierra Club, notifying Jasper Wood Products of Sierra Club’s intent to file a Clean Water Act lawsuit in federal court against Jasper Wood Products if Jasper Wood Products failed to address its violations during the sixty-day pre-lawsuit waiting period mandated by the Clean Water Act.
Jasper Wood Products contacted OCWAP within a few weeks of receiving our letter, and discussions between Jasper Wood Products and OCWAP led to a meeting involving Jasper Wood Products, OCWAP, and Sierra Club on February 27. At the meeting, Jasper Wood Products represented that increased wrapping of its finished product and increased sweeping had been implemented since receipt of OCWAP’s letter, and that these measures were aimed at bring Jasper Wood Products into compliance with the requirements of its Clean Water Act permit. Jasper Wood Products also brought monitoring results to the meeting indicating that its discharges were in compliance with permit limits on the three occasions (January 11, January 24, and February 8) that monitoring took place since receiving OCWAP’s January 7 letter. It therefore appeared that actions taken by Jasper Wood Products since receipt of OCWAP’s letter addressed Jasper Wood Products’ Clean Water Act compliance issues.
Jasper Wood Products agreed to send its monthly monitoring reports to OCWAP electronically through July of 2006, which aided OCWAP in ensuring that Jasper Wood Products remained in compliance with its Clean Water Act permit. Monitoring results indicated that Jasper Wood Products’ discharges were in compliance with its Clean Water Act permit during those months.
