State fines Port over stormwater
3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017
Agency will
appeal penalties
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria has
been assessed $69,319 in
civil penalties by the state
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality for stormwater
violations.
Port Executive Director
Jim Knight said the agency
will appeal the penalties.
The agency was fined
$22,569 for not completing
its Pier 3 stormwater treat-
ment system by July 1, 2016.
A separate fine with no mon-
etary value was assessed for
the Port not finishing a simi-
lar treatment system at North
Tongue Point by the same
deadline.
“DEQ appreciates your
efforts to correct the treat-
ment violations by install-
ing the stormwater treatment
measures after the deadline,”
Sarah G. Wheeler, manager
of the state’s Office of Com-
pliance and Enforcement,
wrote in a notice of the penal-
ties. “DEQ considered these
efforts when determining the
amount of civil penalty.”
Stormwater treatment
The agency was required
in August 2014 to build
the systems to limit the
amount of copper enter-
ing the Columbia River. The
Port’s environmental consul-
tants, Maul Foster Alongi,
designed a system to pump
stormwater from through-
out the central waterfront to
a series of settling ponds and
vegetated bioswales to leach
out contaminants. Construc-
tion started late last summer.
Knight said the Port tech-
nically finished its new Pier
3 stormwater treatment sys-
tem in November. “The time
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The state Department of Environmental Quality has fined
the Port of Astoria over stormwater violations.
frame between (July 1) and
November, when we com-
pleted construction, that’s the
period of time they want to
fine us for,” he said.
Although
construction
largely finished in November,
the agency has still not been
able to make the system oper-
ational. Heavy rains and cold
weather over the winter have
prevented seeding from tak-
ing hold, washed out berms
holding in stormwater and
compacted soil in the system.
The vegetated bioswale
central to stormwater treat-
ment is meant to leach out
contaminants before water
seeps into the soil to drains
below for eventual release
at the end of Pier 3. The Port
is waiting for better weather
to have the soil in the storm-
water system tilled and
reseeded.
The Port also discovered
during construction that fish
waste was being pumped into
the system from Bornstein
Seafoods at the foot of Pier
1. The company has since
rerouted its runoff to a sepa-
rate outfall.
Monitoring
The Port was fined
$46,750 for two separate
stormwater monitoring vio-
lations at North Tongue
Point during the 2015-16
monitoring year, which runs
from July 1 to June 30. The
agency is required to mon-
itor for benchmark pollut-
ants four times a year, but
in many cases only gathered
three samples.
The Port has previously
violated stormwater moni-
toring requirements in 2016,
2014 and 2013.
Knight said part of the
problem is that many of the
outfalls where the Port mon-
itors are hard to reach after
heavy rains and during high
tides. “I do think our ultimate
solution is to change the way
we access the outfalls, so that
we’re not impacted by tidal
action,” he said.
He said the Port’s appeal
of the two most recent fines
will go out this or next week.
In lieu of a fine, the Port
can also perform a supple-
mental environmental proj-
ect to remedy civil penalties.
Knight said the Port is plan-
ning to help build a rain gar-
den at Astoria Middle School
to remedy the fines from last
year.
Bills would stave off opening of second women’s prison
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Several pro-
posals in the Legislature would
stave off the need to open an
expensive second women’s
prison in the midst of Oregon’s
$1.6 billion revenue shortfall,
according to initial projections.
‘What we do not want to
have to do is open new pris-
ons,” said state Sen. Elizabeth
Steiner-Hayward, D-Beaver-
ton. “The last thing the state
can afford to do is put more and
more of our hard-earned dol-
lars into prisons instead of edu-
cation and health care and the
human services that will pre-
vent people from interacting
with the criminal justice system
in the first place.”
Two bills to expand eligi-
bility for the Family Sentenc-
ing Alternative Pilot Program
received widespread support
from criminal justice reform-
ers and law enforcement during
legislative hearings Tuesday
and Wednesday.
Another bill to expand the
length of an early release pro-
gram from 90 to 180 days for
inmates convicted of nonviolent
property and drug crimes faces
opposition from the Oregon
District Attorneys Association.
The Family Sentencing
Alternative Pilot Program
diverts the parents of minor
children from prison and allows
them to stay in the community
under supervision. The offend-
ers also receive wraparound
services such as drug treatment
or parenting classes.
Last year, 75 parents par-
ticipated in the program in five
counties: Multnomah, Wash-
ington, Marion, Deschutes and
Jackson. That helped to keep
139 children out of foster care,
according to a joint report by
the Department of Human Ser-
vices and the Department of
Corrections.
“Women oftentimes have
child abuse or sexual abuse
histories. In turn, they develop
mental health issues and
then they start self-medicat-
ing through drugs and alcohol,
poor relationships, (and) even-
tually end up participating in
drug offenses, property crime,”
Paris Achen/Capital Bureau
Tira Hubbard, a probation officer in Jackson County, sits in a
House Judiciary hearing at the Capitol in Salem Wednesday
as measures are discussed to reduce prison populations.
said Tira Hubbard, a parole and
probation officer in Jackson
County. “That rolls them into
the criminal justice system. By
just treating the addiction and
the criminality and not looking
at those underlying root causes,
we’re just treating the symp-
toms and not the virus.”
Speakers at hearings in the
House and Senate judiciary
committees unanimously sup-
ported two bills that would
open up the program to preg-
nant women. Some pregnant
women who otherwise qual-
ified for the program were
rejected and were sent to prison.
“Having a baby in prison
is a really, really rough situa-
tion,” said Rep. Tawna San-
chez, D-Portland, who has
worked extensively for social
justice organizations. After giv-
ing birth, the women have to
“immediately give the child to
someone else,” Sanchez said.
The other bill to expand an
early release program called
Short-Term Transitional Leave
is provoking more controversy.
The proposal would expand the
90-day program to 180 days.
Inmates who don’t have a
mandatory minimum sentence
and have no violations in the past
12 months are eligible for the
program. In the first two years,
program failures were minimal,
according to the Oregon Crimi-
nal Justice Commission.
Nevertheless, district attor-
neys have come out against
the expansion, citing a 2013
agreement with the then-House
Majority Leader and two
now-retired lawmakers not to
revisit sentencing changes for
at least five years.
“The most important reason
I oppose (the bill) is it erodes an
important pillar of a good justice
system and that is truth in sen-
tencing,” said Linn County Dis-
trict Attorney Doug Marteeny.
Marteeny said victims may
be unaware that an offender
won’t have to serve all of his or
her sentence.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski,
D-Eugene, chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee,
responded that it’s prosecutors’
job to let victims know how the
system works.
The expansion would post-
pone the need to open a sec-
ond women’s prison by at least
two years, according to analysis
by the Oregon Criminal Justice
Commission. The cost of open-
ing the second facility would be
about $9.5 million.
The population at the state’s
only women’s prison, Coffee
Creek Correctional Facility in
Wilsonville, has hovered above
capacity for more than a year.
The limit is 1,280. On Wednes-
day the population was 1,298,
according to the Department of
Corrections.
RA NDY BURT
Saturday
April 8, 2017
7:30 to ?
Awesome Rock & Roll, Blues,
Country & MORE!
DINNER SPECIAL
HOMEMADE MEATLOAF • Only $8
w/Scalloped Potatoes & Asparagus, Served from 5 to 8pm
PUBLIC WELCOME – OPEN TO ALL!
Please call 503-738-5111 for ticket information. This is a Post 99 fundraiser. We appreciate your support!
SEASIDE AMERICAN LEGION
1315 Broadway • 503-738-5111
M c Clure and Shively Parks Open House
Open
House :
g
Meetin 2
Round
Tuesday, March 7 - 4:30-6pm
Tuesday, March 7 - 6:30-8pm
Shively Park Hall, 1530 Shively Park Road
Tuesday • April 11 th • 5 30pm • Shively Hall • 1530 Shively Park Rd.
P ARKS M ASTER P LANS O PEN H OUSE
Please join us Tuesday, April 11 starting at 5:30 PM to discuss McClure Park and Shively Park proposed Master Plans.
There will be a presentation on both parks at 6pm, followed by questions, answers, comments, and discussion.
The Astoria City Council identifi ed planning for these two parks as a priority in the recently adopted City-wide Astoria Parks Comprehensive Master Plan.
A fi rst round of public open house meetings was held in March and provided community members the opportunity to suggest how these two parks should be maintained and/or improved in the future.
This second round of public open house meetings wil give community members the opportunity to review and comment on optional plans presented by the planning team. Final draft Master Plans will
be presented to the City Council for consideration later this year. The draft plans will include ideas concerning:
• Construction and/or maintenance of park amenities
• Access to the parks
• Maintenance of natural features
• Preferred uses and activities within these parks
• Safety considerations
For more information, visit www.astoriaparks.com or contact Angela Cosby, Director of Parks and Recreation acosby@astoria.or.us or 503-298-2460.
Light refreshments will be served.