The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued a civil penalty of nearly $9,000 to Valley Milling and Lumber, a Eugene-based lumber remanufacturing company, in December 2022 for failure to collect and submit the required samples for stormwater monitoring during the 2020-2021 monitoring year.

This is a repeat violation, as it was issued a penalty in 2019 for the same offense in the same area in 2019 for the 2017-2018 monitoring year.

Valley Milling and Lumber is a company in Eugene that offers a variety of services involving construction, agriculture and packing products. It manufactures products and remanufactures wood materials to requested patterns for customers. 

The fine was due to a failure to submit the necessary grab samples required by its industrial stormwater permit. Grab samples require the collection of water samples at a certain location at a certain time. Stormwater is rainfall that runs off the site into any storm drains, potentially polluting other areas if the water quality is poor.

“This penalty was not for exceeding benchmarks or creating greater pollutants into our waterways but was solely for missing a test which was a result of a miscommunication between our office and the company who collects our samples,” Valley Milling and Lumber wrote in a statement. “It remains our company’s goal to be an environmentally conscious and responsible company that helps the future sustainability of our local waterways.”

Valley Milling and Lumber contracts with the company BB&A Environmental concerning their water samples. We reached out but they were unable to comment.

The penalty it was issued was a total of $8,750. This is a total of a combination of charges, which included a base penalty of $4,000 for a moderate magnitude violation. A moderate magnitude violation is one that the DEQ has not been able to identify as minor or major, depending on the violation’s harm to human health or the environment. According to Dylan Darling, DEQ Public Affairs Specialist, the DEQ determines a charge based on whether or not something is a first offense, history of correcting prior actions, knowledge of a monitoring requirement and efforts to correct this violation. 

Valley Milling and Lumber has successfully corrected its actions in the past and has made efforts following this penalty to correct their actions in the future and therefore avoided further charges in these two areas Darling said. 

The reasons it did receive charges include the fact that it was a repeat violation, its awareness of the monitoring requirements and the economic benefit they gained by disregarding the requirement, according to Darling.

“In having one of these permits, it will set up what they need to do to address stormwater, and then also how they will need to monitor,” Darling said. “When something is spelled out in a permit, it is an expectation and a requirement.”

In response to their previous violation from 2019, the DEQ offered an Expedited Enforcement Offer. This allowed them to settle the violation more quickly and at a reduced fine, but it does not allow the company to appeal. The company accepted this offer.

Valley Milling and Lumber paid this most recent fine in full without appeal by the end of December, closing the case.