The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) sent a pre-enforcement notice to San Mateo, California-based J.H. Baxter & Co., Jan. 18 for illegal discharges of copper and of the wood preservative pentachlorophenol at its Roosevelt Boulevard facility in Eugene. J.H. Baxter’s pentachlorophenol discharges violated its Clean Water Act permit in December 2016 and in January, February and November of 2017, and its copper discharges violated its Clean Water Act permit in November of 2017. DEQ classified the violations as serious, and noted that “[p]entachlorophenol and copper are toxic to many organism[s].” J.H. Baxter’s Clean Water Act permit expired at the end of October of 2015, and requires monitoring of pentachlorophenol and copper just once a month.

Clean Water Action Project