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News Release
For release: April 19, 2012 Contacts: Company Fined $9,393 for Stormwater Discharge and Permit Violations in Tualatin, Rainier The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued $9,393 in penalties to a Pacific Rock Products LLC, a rock-mining and processing company, for failing to conduct required sampling and monitoring of stormwater discharge at concrete batch plant operations in Tualatin and Rainier. Pacific Rock has local offices in Canby, Oregon and Vancouver, Wash. DEQ issued the company a $4,727 penalty for failing to conduct required sampling and monitoring of stormwater at its Tualatin concrete batch plant (since closed) at 18610 SW Pacific Highway. It also issued a $4,666 penalty to the company for the same violation at Pacific Rock’s Goble Quarry concrete batch plant (now operated by a different company) at 70075 Nicolai Road in Rainier. Both violations occurred in the 2008-09 monitoring year, before the company contacted DEQ in 2011 to end its permit coverage for the Tualatin plant and transfer permit coverage for the Rainier plant. Pacific Rock’s permit allowed it to discharge stormwater runoff from both the Tualatin and Rainier sites under strict limits and other requirements, including regular discharge sampling and monitoring. DEQ issued the penalty because the regulatory system that protects Oregon’s water quality relies almost exclusively on complete, accurate monitoring and reporting by pollution sources. Without this information, permitted companies and DEQ cannot determine whether discharges from a company’s site meet water quality benchmarks outlined in the permit. Failure to meet these benchmarks may indicate the presence of harmful levels of industrial pollutants that could enter public rivers and streams. DEQ cited Pacific Rock for not conducting discharge sampling and monitoring at both plants from 2008 through 2011, but did not issue penalties beyond the 2008-09 year because the plants were inactive after that time. Technically, however, the plants were covered under the permit through early 2012, when Pacific Rock applied for and received termination/transfer of permit coverage. Pacific Rock Products LLC has until May 3 to appeal the penalty. ### |
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