10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015
INTO THE RIVER
Samples show
what the Port puts
in the Columbia
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
On a rain-soaked day in early
January, the Port of Astoria’s Per-
mit and Projects Coordinator Rob
Evert gathers his bottles and goes
Oregon Department of Environ-
mental Quality.
Evert and other Port staff
gather runoff during storm events
throughout the year, send them to
a third-party laboratory and relay
the results to DEQ, which re-
quires the data to ensure the Port’s
stormwater management system
is adequate to control pollutants.
“The permit reads that it needs
to be the worst possible condi-
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Robert Evert, permit and project manager for the Port of Astoria, finishes collecting stormwater samples Monday near
Pier 3. The Port of Astoria submitted a plan to the Department of Environmental Quality to install a biofiltration system
to treat storm runoff before it enters the Columbia River.
Port: Central treatment system
is better at controlling runoff
Continued from Page 1A
made with the Northwest En-
vironmental Defense Center
and Columbia Riverkeeper,
which legally challenged the
existing stormwater permits
in 2007 and 2008 as not be-
ing stringent enough to protect
water quality under the Clean
Water Act. The permit revi-
Then come vegetative
swales with rushes, sages and
other appropriate plant life to
before the treated stormwater
-
oyster, crab and/or other shells
to help remove metal.
Shells have a high concentra-
tion of calcium carbonate, which
when released into water helps
absorb and precipitate metals.
Similar measures have been used
by the Port of Seattle to capture
metals from stormwater at Seat-
tle-Tacoma International Airport
and from highway overpasses.
The Port’s plan includes in-
stalling signs along the Astoria
Riverwalk to explain to pass-
ers-by how the stormwater sys-
tem cleans water.
The plan still needs to be
OK’d by the DEQ, which issues
permits, and the DSL, which
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Bottles of storm runoff water sit on rocks along Pier 1 as
Evert collects a final sample.
owns the land where the Port pro-
poses to place its system. Whether
the proposed system is successful
depends on tests after it becomes
operational by summer 2016.
Higher standards
The Port is not alone. By
the end of 2014, 175 of the
817 industrial stormwater per-
mit-holders were moved into
the Tier II designation and had
to start improving treatment of
their runoff, said Water Quality
Manager Ron Doughten with
the DEQ.
The higher standards stem
from an agreement the DEQ
Neawanna: Facility remains
embroiled in a U.S. District Court
case against its former employees
Continued from Page 1A
care facilities in Oregon.
“They’re all at risk of
losing their license at any
time,” Oace said. “We have
not made any decision to —
or expressed any attempt to
— remove (Neawanna’s) li-
cense to operate.”
Such a decision would
depend on the severity of
the deficiency, Oace said.
All of the deficiencies not-
ed in the 2014 surveys were
documented as isolated in-
cidents, and very few were
determined to have actually
caused harm to a resident.
In response to the Sep-
tember findings, however,
Neawanna hired the Port-
land-based Frontier Manage-
ment shortly thereafter as its
new management company,
replacing Westmont Living,
based in La Jolla, Calif.
Frontier was “asked
to step in and help move
Neawanna forward,” said
a Frontier employee who
wished to remain anony-
mous.
The “drastic” change
“shows a good faith effort
on the part of the provider
to come into compliance,”
Oace said. “We’re encour-
aged and hope that they’re
headed in the right direc-
tion.”
Complaints and
allegations
The deficiencies recorded
in Neawanna’s inspections
appear to be small-scale
lapses largely relating to
how the facility tracks its
patients’ conditions and ad-
ministers their medications.
But they reflect the gen-
eral allegations of seven of
Neawanna’s ex-employees
who claim, in sworn affida-
vits with the Oregon Bureau
of Labor and Industries, that
‘They’re all at risk of losing their
license at any time.’
— Cory Oace
manager of the community-based care licensing unit that oversees
Neawanna speaking of the nearly 500 community care facilities in
Oregon
they witnessed Neawanna
occasionally mistreating its
residents.
Neawanna, along with
Westmont Living, remains
embroiled in a U.S. District
Court case against its for-
mer employees, who allege
in a civil suit that the busi-
ness engaged in wage theft,
discriminated against its
workers based on age, race
and sex, and may have un-
lawfully terminated them for
blowing the whistle on its
practices.
In 2014, state Adult Pro-
tective Services investigat-
ed six separate complaints
against Neawanna while the
facility was under Westmont
Living’s management.
Three of the complaints
were deemed unsubstantiat-
ed; that is, no wrongdoing
appears to have occurred.
One of the substantiated
complaints — a failure to
administer ordered medica-
tion — resulted in exposing
a resident to potential harm.
Another — a failure to fol-
low a care plan — prevent-
ed a resident from receiving
needed lotion on a sore.
And the sixth — a failure
to provide a resident with
prescribed narcotic medi-
cations when the resident
moved to another facility
— had caused the resident
unreasonable discomfort for
several days. “This failure is
a violation of resident rights,
is considered neglect of care
and constitutes abuse,” ac-
cording to the findings.
However, that number of
complaints is “not uncom-
mon,” Oace said, which “is
not to say that the goal isn’t
zero.” “We have lots of facil-
ities that have more, we have
lots that have less.”
The plaintiffs in the civ-
il suit — Wesley Cordova,
a former cook; Elodia Gon-
zalez, a former caregiver;
Lynzee Johnson, a former
medical technician; Kylee
Lunsford, a former medical
technician; Amy Patterson,
a former medical technician;
Matthew Perry, a former
dishwasher; and Michealyn
Schroeder, a former resident
services director — also
claim in their affidavits that
Neawanna ignored unsan-
itary conditions, created a
hostile work environment
and allowed sexual harass-
ment to occur.
They have retained lawyer
Michael Ross, of Slater Ross
Attorneys in Portland. Slat-
er is handling the plaintiffs’
allegations as a single claim
against Neawanna and West-
mont Living. David Silke, of
the Seattle-based Gordon &
Rees LLP, represents the de-
fendants.
The seven are still seek-
ing economic damages, liq-
uidated damages, noneco-
nomic damages of $100,000
per plaintiff, equitable relief,
pre- and post-judgement in-
terest and costs, disburse-
ments and attorney fees.
Attempts by the EO Me-
dia Group to reach Westmont
Living were unsuccessful.
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency made in its general
permit for industrial stormwa-
ter discharges.
Possibly the biggest advan-
tage of the Port’s plan for a cen-
tral treatment system is better
controlling its runoff.
“It would eliminate a num-
ber of those outfalls and consol-
It would actually be the outfall
from the bioswales and the ga-
bions — it would be the treated
outfall,” said Evert, who also
predicted a dramatic reduction
of suspended solids and metals
going into the river.
Jan. 5 at the edge of Pier 1, just
past the log yard where Astoria
Forest Products loads millions
of board feet of timber onto out-
going ships using log trucks and
front loaders.
Evert scrambles down a rock
plastic pipe coming out under-
neath Pier 1, one of four outfalls
of water into the Columbia he
samples along the central water-
front. The Port also monitors three
outfalls at North Tongue Point.
He’s doing one of the quarter-
ly samples required for pH bal-
ance, copper, lead, zinc, iron, alu-
minum, oil, grease and suspended
solids. The Port gathers samples
eight times a year to test for cad-
mium, nickel and chromium; and
two times per year for arsenic, in-
secticidal DDT, E. coli and poly-
chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
often used in electrical equipment.
The consequences for missing
the monitoring goals are serious.
The DEQ issued the Port a civil
penalty of $22,581 late last year
for failing to monitor certain pol-
lutants in the Gateway District
and at North Tongue Point. The
2013 for missing the monitoring
requirements.
“It’s almost a little bit of the
honor system,” said Evert, who
sends his samples to the lab within
24 hours, and the discharge mon-
itoring reports to DEQ. When
there’s an issue, he said, he goes
upstream, sees if internal house-
keeping at the Port can solve the
issue. And if the above-average
pollutant readings continue, then
comes the situation the Port’s in
with the DEQ, creating a new
stormwater treatment plan.
“With the stormwater and
the industrial wastewater rules, it
focuses on the aquatic life,” said
Evert. “What’s interesting about
that, for instance, is in Puget
Sound, you cannot turn on the tap
and discharge tap water into Puget
Sound, because the water quality
is not good enough.
“The permittees, the agen-
cies, are striving toward a level
of cleanliness of that water that’s
going back into the river, back
into the Sound, back into the
bay, that’s better than the quality
of water we’re drinking. Is that
reasonable? Yes. Is that realistic?
Sometimes a challenge.”
The Environment Protection
Agency estimates that runoff
from impermeable surfaces com-
prises 30 percent of water pollu-
tion.
“It’s based on the facility, but
copper and zinc are very com-
mon,” said Water Quality Manag-
er Ron Doughten with the DEQ.
Copper, even at very low levels,
smell and sense danger, while
-
lecting on gills. They come from
various sources, including brake
pads, tires, motor oil and galva-
One of the Port’s biggest
sources of pollutants, like many
other ports, is its boatyard. Since
1992, said Evert, there have been
38 boatyards shut down in Wash-
ington and Oregon because of
stormwater regulations.
Port Commissioner Bill
Hunsinger was also spot on, he
added, when he talked about the
1,100 trucks per log ship adding
to the problem, along with all
the other vehicles regularly criss-
crossing the Port’s waterfront. Be-
yond the Port, there’s runoff from
the roads, roofs and other sources
in the city that contribute to the
An advantage of a new storm-
water system DEQ recently man-
dated the Port create by summer
2016, Evert said, will hopefully
concentrate the agency’s storm-
water in one outfall, which is
treated before it goes into the Co-
lumbia River.
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