Oregon DEQ Fines Portland Recycler for Stormwater Discharge

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued a $5,788 penalty to Environmental Fibers International Inc., Portland, for violating its stormwater discharge permit.

The facility operates under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System general permit that allows it to discharge its stormwater to the Willamette River under certain conditions and requirements.

According to a DEQ release, the agency issued the penalty because Environmental Fibers failed to collect and analyze all discharge samples and failed to visually monitor its discharge samples each month as required during the 2008-09 monitoring period, and failed to carry out all visual discharge monitoring required during the 2009-10 monitoring period.

As a stormwater discharge permittee, the Oregon DEQ says that Environmental Fibers is required to regularly sample and monitor its stormwater to ensure that these discharges meet water quality permit benchmarks that can indicate the presence of harmful levels of industrial pollutants that could enter the Willamette River.

Environmental Fibers International has appealed the penalty and will meet with DEQ to discuss the penalty.

A spokesman for EFI says the company did send in the information within the required period of time and is in the process of setting up a meaning with the DEQ.