Sierra Pacific’s Highway 99 mill fined for wastewater violations

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality fined the Seneca Sawmill Co., owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, for releasing wastewater at limit-breaking levels — water that was at times too acidic and too turbid.

Sierra Pacific Industries purchased Seneca’s sawmill at 90201 Highway 99 North in 2021. 

The sawmill operates under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which requires companies to monitor wastewater runoff. It also has a Title V permit with the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, which regulates hazardous air pollutants.

DEQ’s civil penalty only pertains to violations within the mill’s wastewater permit, according to the agency’s monthly enforcement roster posted Sept. 2. The agency issued a fine of $13,600.

The mill has the capacity to produce 270 million board feet of wood per year. In addition to its lumber manufacturing, the mill also operates a biomass energy facility. Leftover sawdust goes into a boiler system that burns small scraps of bark and shavings to make steam and electricity. Eugene Water & Electric Board buys the electricity and steam is used to dry the mill’s lumber in kilns. (EWEB was not part of the citation.) 

The mill’s wastewater is primarily generated by three operations, according to Environmental Protection Agency records: a sprinkler system that sprays logs in its yard, water that workers use to clean vehicles of mud and sawdust, and the boiler system.

Runoff from these activities goes into a retention pond, where it is filtered and eventually released into a channel that flows into Amazon Creek.

According to DEQ’s notice of the violation, sent to Seneca Sawmill Co. LLC July 23, the mill exceeded the limits of its permit for three types of categories between 2021 and 2024. 

• In November 2021, the mill released 23% more than it is allowed for total suspended solids, which are typically solid materials like mud and sawdust suspended in wastewater.
• From 2021 through 2023, the mill released wastewater with unbalanced pH levels. The pH scale is used to measure acidity (like vinegar), neutrality (like pure water), and  alkalinity (like bleach). The mill is permitted in the neutrality zone with some leeway on both sides. On 18 occasions, it was out of limits; 15 leaned too acidic and three leaned too alkaline.
• In July 2024, on five occasions discharge was warmer than its allowed temperature of nearly 65 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest reading nearly 7 degrees over the limit. 

Additionally, DEQ found the mill failed to collect data for an entire week and seven other individual days.

In a statement to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, Sierra Pacific Industries spokesperson Courtney Griesel pointed to operational slipups.

Sierra Pacific “takes environmental compliance seriously and has worked closely with DEQ to improve monitoring and reporting practices throughout this matter which is now paid and closed with corrective actions implemented and no recurrences,” Griesel said.