Pollution Update 9-8-16

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) sent Chicago-based MHC NAC (formerly National American Corporation) a warning letter on Aug. 22 for monitoring and sampling violations of its sewage permit for South Jetty RV & Campground, located on South Jetty Road in Florence. The violations date to 2011, and some of them appear to have occurred every year from 2011 through 2015. DEQ “is concerned that additional permit violations may continue to occur in the future.” DEQ also sent Hull-Oakes Lumber a warning letter on Aug. 25 for failing to submit discharge monitoring reports to DEQ on time for the second time in three years. Hull-Oakes operates a sawmill near Monroe for which it holds an expired Clean Water Act permit that allows it to discharge various types of pollution to Miller Creek and Oliver Creek. Hull-Oakes’s permit expired on June 30, 2011. DEQ’s online permit applications database indicates that the permit was “being drafted” as of Jan. 3, 2012.