WASHINGTON: The Port of Astoria has appealed its most recent fines from the state Department of Environmental Quality for lackluster stormwater monitoring and treatment. The Port was fined $46,750 last month for failing to meet stormwater monitoring requirements on the central waterfront and at North Tongue Point in the 2015-16 monitoring year. The agency was fined another $22,569 for not finishing stormwater treatment systems at the central waterfront and North Tongue Point as required by the state by July. Jim Knight, the Port’s executive director, had previously announced he would appeal the fines. The Port has requested a hearing with the Department of Environmental Quality. Knight has been criticized by Port Commissioners Bill Hunsinger and Stephen Fulton, along with Port Commission candidates Dick Hellberg and Pat O’Grady, for not revealing the stormwater fines before a story appeared in The Daily Astorian. In August 2014, the Department of Environmental Quality notified the Port that by July, it would need to make operational stormwater treatment systems on the central waterfront and North Tongue Point to lessen the amount of copper entering the Columbia River and harming salmon and other aquatic life.
The Port planned a series of settling ponds and a vegetated bioswale to treat stormwater being pumped in from throughout much of the central waterfront. Conway Construction Co. from Ridgefield, Washington, was chosen as the general contractor on the system. Construction started over the summer and was largely completed in November, about four months after schedule. But heavy rains and cold weather prevented seeding from taking hold and washed out berms holding in stormwater and compacted soil, preventing the Port from making the system operational. Jeff Bachman, an environmental law specialist with the DEQ’s Office of Compliance and Enforcement, confirmed that the Port is not being fined for delays after November. Knight estimated two more months to make the stormwater system on Pier 3 operational, depending on weather. In its appeal, the Port did not elaborate on the arguments the agency will use to contest the fines. Knight said the Port’s arguments will be laid out in a hearing with the department. “My sense is that DEQ really wants to work with us,” he said, adding the Port has improved relations with the agency. “They’re not trying to inappropriately punish us.” The Port was fined $36,916 last year for failing to conduct required stormwater monitoring at the Port’s central waterfront and North Tongue Point facilities during the 2014-15 monitoring year, and for failing to file required reports in a timely manner.
