et al.Dear Jan,
With regard to some of our recent email discussion, this article from today's Register-Guard may not strictly be about open waterways (?) but it does reflect the City's operational attitude regarding enforcement of fill permitting requirements, as I've experienced it:
"[Molly Ritter] said she doesn't envision levying penalties."
If ten acres of unpermitted grading in an acknowledged "sensitive area" does not call for penalties, it is hard to see how the permitting rules hold sway.
We would like to encourage the City to engage in firm and fair enforcement of our development permitting rules, particularly where irreversible environmental impacts are involved, wouldn't we?
How can citizens constructively address the land use enforcement processes?
Best wishes,
Kevin
http://www.registerguard.com/news/20000808/1b.bz.pick.0808.html
August 8, 2000
Junkyard overlooks permit process, fills wetlands
By CHRISTIAN WIHTOL Register-Guard Business Editor
Corvallis-based automobile junkyard operator B&R Pick & Pull earlier this year said it wanted in short order to turn its new, 50-acre Eugene property off Prairie Road into the southern Willamette Valley's largest salvage operation.
But the company has been just a little too hasty, it seems. While preparing the yard to accommodate thousands of wrecked cars, B&R filled wetlands and performed extensive grading work without necessary federal and city permits, officials say.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to visit the junkyard at Prairie and Maxwell roads to determine if the agency should levy penalties against the company or take other steps, said Chris Thoms, a corps manager for the Lane County area. B&R filled 0.58 acres of federally regulated wetlands without obtaining a federal permit, Thoms said. That potentially violates the U.S. Clean Water Act, she said.
Along with its wetlands filling, the company graded an area of roughly 10 acres next to a large pond without getting an erosion-control permit, said Molly Ritter, the city's erosion control specialist. Ritter said she has asked the company to design an erosion control plan to stop mud from washing into the pond. She said she doesn't envision levying penalties.
B&R apparently was unaware that it was breaking federal and city rules, Thoms and Ritter said. "They didn't realize they were doing anything wrong," Thoms said.
Richard Perlenfein, B&R's chagrined co-owner, noted that the company's environmental consultant applied for a federal fill permit earlier this year. Last month, B&R mistakenly assumed the permit had been granted and went ahead with the filling, he said.
"It's an embarrassing chain of events," Perlenfein said. "The ducks weren't in a row."
B&R is a large and growing outfit. It has junkyards in Corvallis and Albany and also owns American Auto Salvage in Springfield.
Last year, it bought the Prairie Road parcel - which also has a 9,000-square-foot warehouse - for $1.85 million from Union Pacific railroad. The parcel is a long, thin strip alongside the main rail line. Long-term, Perlenfein said he wants to put up to 10,000 wrecked cars on about 30 acres. B&R's customers are mechanics and others who pick apart the junk vehicles for usable parts. Perlenfein said he may eventually turn the rest of the property into an "automotive industrial park," renting out space to body shops and the like.
The company began its development on the right foot by hiring a wetlands expert who identified about an acre of wetlands scattered around the property. Then, B&R applied to the corps for a permit to fill 0.58 acres of wetlands. The company said it would make up for the filling by paying into the West Eugene Wetlands Plan mitigation bank, a city-run venture that restores degraded wetlands and creates new wetlands. Paying into the bank is the customary way for developers to compensate for filling small areas of wetlands. The company proposed paying $18,000, said Scott Duckett, the bank's manager.
But even after a company pays into the bank, it must still secure a federal fill permit, Duckett stressed. B&R never did that.
Instead, it simply proceeded to fill the wetlands, grade the site and place gravel on some of it.
At the same time, the corps, unaware the filling had taken place, issued a notice to the public and to government agencies saying it was seeking comment on B&R's application.
While that was happening, a city inspector happened to drive by the site and noticed the grading, Ritter said. The inspector was pretty sure that no erosion permit had ever been issued for the work, she said. The city requires a permit for grading that involves an area larger than 500 square feet in a "sensitive area," Ritter said.
The B&R area is sensitive because it is adjacent to a large pond, Ritter said. The pond covers about 3 acres and sits on land owned by the railroad. The city doesn't want the pond to be subjected unnecessarily to sedimentation, Ritter said. The pond is hardly a pristine body of water - it is after all in an industrial area and right next to a rail line - but it's still worthwhile to keep the pond as sediment-free as possible, she said. The city will probably direct B&R to put plants on the slope between the yard and the pond and to explain how it will keep surface water from flowing into the pond, she said.
"Sediment is something we want to minimize," Ritter said, adding, "We try to work with people and try to educate them."
As for the filled wetlands, Duckett said they were classified as "low-quality, degraded wetlands." That's not surprising, given their location. "A lot of times in industrial areas you have degraded wetlands," he said.
Still, even degraded wetlands have value, from holding storm water to serving as feeding and resting spots for migratory birds, said Thoms, the corps manager.
Whether the corps would have approved B&R's fill permit is unclear, Thoms said, because the unauthorized filling has short-circuited the agency's procedure for gathering public comment. "I'm not sure where we would have gone with it," she said.
If history is any guide, however, the agency would likely have granted the permit. Over the years, scores of developers have secured federal permits for filling small, and even large, tracts of wetlands in Eugene.
It was not immediately clear when the corps will complete its review of the case. A corps official in charge of enforcement did not return a telephone call from The Register-Guard.
Citizens Nature Project! http://www.NatureProject.org/nature.html
Neighbors Forum! http://www.SoutheastNeighbors.org/sen_forum.html
====================================================================
Kevin Matthews, matthews@artifice.com
541-345-7421 vox, 541-345-7438 fax, P.O. Box 1588, Eugene, OR 97440
====== End Forwarded Message ======
Citizens Nature Project! http://www.NatureProject.org/nature.html
Neighbors Forum! http://www.SoutheastNeighbors.org/sen_forum.html
====================================================================
Kevin Matthews, matthews@artifice.com
541-345-7421 vox, 541-345-7438 fax, P.O. Box 1588, Eugene, OR 97440