As the new home of WashPIRG's environmental work, Environment Washington can be contacted regarding this news release.
Bellingham—The Washington
Public Interest Research Group (WashPIRG) and the Washington Toxics Coalition
(WTC) announced today that they have reached an agreement with the Bellingham-area
wood treatment facility The Oeser Company over the company’s repeated violations
of its Clean Water Act permit. The groups filed suit against Oeser in June 2002
for illegally discharging stormwater contaminated with highly toxic chemicals
into Bellingham-area waterways. Under the agreement, Oeser must pay for the
development and implementation of a comprehensive pollution prevention plan
to ensure long-term compliance with environmental laws, and must pay penalties
if it further violates its Clean Water Act discharge limits.
"We are pleased that
we could reach an agreement with The Oeser Company. Because the chemicals Oeser
continues to use to treat its wood are highly toxic to humans and wildlife,
it’s critical that Oeser take all necessary steps to eliminate future violations,"
said Ivy Sager-Rosenthal, environmental advocate for WashPIRG. "This settlement
gives Oeser an opportunity to do this. We will be watching them to make sure
they follow through."
The groups charged that
the Oeser Company had violated its stormwater discharge permit on several occasions
since 1994 by discharging high levels of the dangerous wood preservative pentachlorophenol
(penta) from its wood treatment facility into Little Squalicum Creek, which
flows into Bellingham Bay at Little Squalicum Creek Park. Bellingham Bay is
one of the most contaminated waterbodies in Washington.
Under the settlement agreement,
which was signed last week, Oeser must hire a team of professional engineering
consultants to:
• determine the sources
of penta contamination in Oeser’s stormwater discharge;
• map the location
of all points from which pollutants might drain from the facility;
• investigate and evaluate
options for reducing penta contamination; and
• develop a long-term
plan to secure sustained compliance with the Clean Water Act and hazardous waste
laws.
Oeser must maintain strict
compliance with its Clean Water Act permit for a period of twelve consecutive
months, or face increasingly stiff monetary fines.
"The best way for Oeser
to clean up its act is to stop treating wood with pentachlorophenol—a chemical
banned in 26 countries," said Laurie Valeriano, policy director for the
Washington Toxics Coalition. "This settlement requires the company to investigate
alternative processes, which is a first step in the right direction."
Oeser is one of only four
companies in the state that continues to use penta to treat its wood products.
Oeser has been the subject of attention from local and statewide environmental
groups in the past because of its use of penta. Earlier this year, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency filed an administrative enforcement action against
the company alleging that the company’s storage and disposal of penta at
the site violate the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
In 1997, the EPA declared the company’s facility a Superfund site because
of extensive toxic contamination from the company’s use of penta and other
dangerous chemicals. The company is now in negotiation with EPA as to the amount
it will have to pay toward the cost of cleaning up historic contamination at
the site.Chemco Settlement
WashPIRG and WTC also announced
today that they reached agreement with Chemco, Inc. for its violations of copper
and chromium discharge limits at its Ferndale wood treatment facility. The company
used a chromated, copper arsenate (CCA) pesticide solution to treat wood products
at the facility, but it discontinued the CCA process in 2000.
"To its credit, Chemco
has stepped up to the plate and accepted responsibility for the legacy of this
toxic wood treatment process," said WashPIRG’s Sager-Rosenthal. "Not
only did the company voluntarily stop using the CCA process, but it sought out
help from a team of experts at the Department of Ecology to find ways of ending
the copper and chromium contamination in its stormwater."
Under the settlement agreement,
which was signed as a court order in September, Chemco will investigate and
implement measures to reduce copper and chromium in its discharge, and has paid
$10,000 to the Bellingham-based Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association for
habitat assessment and restoration in the Terrell Creek Watershed. Chemco’s
stormwater is discharged into a drainage ditch that empties into Terrell Creek.
WashPIRG and WTC were represented
in these suits by the National Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit litigation
and policy organization based in Seattle and Boston.
