For release: Aug. 9, 2001

Contacts:
Jeff Bachman, Compliance & Enforcement Office, Portland, (503) 229-5950 Brian White, Communications & Outreach, Portland, (503) 229-6044

Fine is largest issued by agency since 1994

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has levied a penalty of $373,580 against a Boring, Oregon physician for long-standing environmental problems with sewage disposal at a mobile home park near Seaside.

The penalty, issued July 31 to Caleb Siaw, M.D., of Boring, is the largest DEQ fine issued since a $480,000 penalty issued to Earth Science Technology in October 1994. The Siaw penalty is the third largest penalty ever assessed by DEQ.

DEQ enforcement officials issued the penalty against Dr. Siaw for failing to carry out an earlier-mandated order to replace an outdated sewage system and replace it with a new system at the Forest Lake Resort mobile home park he operates near Seaside. The facility has about 40 mobile home spaces and sits near the banks of the Necanicum River, upstream from where the city of Seaside occasionally draws river water for the city's drinking water.

Siaw has a lengthy record of environmental violations. He previously owned two other mobile home parks, Forest Haven Mobile Home Park near Molalla in Clackamas County, and Deer Island Mobile Home Park in Columbia County. Both facilities drew DEQ investigation for sewage disposal violations in the 1990s. Siaw has since sold the two facilities. In addition, Siaw was issued a $1,024 penalty in 1998 (later mitigated to $500) for an illegal open burn on property in Boring.

DEQ issued this $373,580 penalty officially for Siaw's failure to submit information required to complete his Water Pollution Control Facilities Permit for the Forest Lake Resort site. Without the permit, Siaw cannot construct a new sewage disposal facility at Forest Lake. Siaw was previously assessed a civil penalty of $6,291 in 1998 for sewage violations at the park. On May 20, 1999, Siaw signed a Mutual Agreement and Order with DEQ that required Siaw to make improvements at Forest Lake necessary to prevent further violations. The Agreement and Order was entered into, in part, to assist Siaw in complying with the terms of his probation, which stemmed from an earlier criminal conviction for water pollution associated with the on-site sewage disposal systems at Forest Lake Resort.

In her July 31 letter to Siaw notifying him of the $373,580 penalty, DEQ Director Stephanie Hallock noted that a significant part of the penalty ($215,180) represented the calculated economic benefit Siaw received by avoiding the cost of installing a new on-site sewage disposal system.

The letter also addresses Siaw's insistence that he was no longer owner of the Forest Lake Resort mobile home park and thus not compelled to comply with DEQ's Order. However, the terms of the Mutual Agreement and Order are binding on Siaw, regardless of who owns the property. Most recently, Siaw transferred ownership of the mobile home park to the Caleb Siaw PC Trust, for which he is trustee.

Anne Cox, water quality environmental specialist in DEQ's Northwest Region office in Portland, said the existing septic systems at the mobile home park are old and undersized. DEQ has documented two earlier cases of sewage discharges at the site, dating back to 1996. Siaw received several Notices of Noncompliance from DEQ between late 1997 and 1998, but sewage discharges continued to be reported at the site on several occasions. On Jan. 22, 1999, Siaw pled guilty in Clatsop County Court to second-degree water pollution for violations stemming from failure of the on-site sewage disposal system at Forest Lake Resort in September 1998. Siaw was sentenced to a $10,600 fine and two years probation. Among the terms of his probation was a condition that he make a "good faith effort" to comply with all requirements necessary to bring Forest Lake Resort into compliance with state law regulating on-site sewage disposal.

In 1998, DEQ required two failing septic systems at the mobile home park to be taken out of use and replaced by holding tanks until a fully upgraded system was in place. Siaw has installed holding tanks, but no effort has yet been made to construct a new system. Oregon law does not allow the use of holding tanks indefinitely because the frequently recurring cost of pumping them out and disposing of the sewage off-site is more expensive than constructing an on-site disposal system. The increased cost of holding tanks creates a potential incentive to save money by disposing of the waste improperly.

Siaw has 20 days from receipt of the penalty notice to either pay or appeal the penalty.