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During the restoration of a stretch of the creek along Amazon Parkway, the city failed to adequately control erosion, letting sediment wash into stream, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality fined the city of Eugene $23,400 for causing pollution to Amazon Creek during a restoration project in south Eugene, according to the state’s monthly roster of violations published Oct. 26.
In a letter sent to City Manager Jenny Haruyama in September, DEQ wrote that the city broke rules that resulted in harmful erosion during the project.
The state considers erosion as pollution when it degrades water quality or harms aquatic life. A large amount of sediment suddenly entering a waterway can bury food sources and smother tiny organisms, and the effects can travel downstream.
Amazon Creek runs north, then west through Eugene until it flows into the Long Tom River.
Funded by a $2.7 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, the Amazon Creek Restoration Project removed a 65-year-old concrete wall lining the channel from 24th Avenue to 20th Avenue.
Between 2024 and 2026, crews broke out the concrete and replanted a sloping stream bank with native plants that once grew there naturally.
The work required a state 401 Water Quality Certification, which requires that construction prevent or control the movement of soil into state waters. The certification also requires crews to build small dams that separate work areas from the main waterway.
In an effort to meet the requirements, the project plan called for crews to use sandbags, stacked three feet tall with two layers of plastic sheeting, plus secondary sandbags to catch leaks.
According to the civil penalty assessment, a pipe diverting water around the work area in the main creek channel failed on or around Aug. 17, 2024. Water “inundated” the area, where one excavator was parked in the middle of the channel and two others sat on exposed soil.
The compliance manager wrote:
“The isolation dam was nonfunctional or missing. The majority of the banks of the creek in the work area lacked erosion control measures and there were uncovered stockpiles that were not stabilized. Several (best management practices) were insufficiently implemented, including incomplete perimeter sediment controls and matting that was staked ineffectively and becoming dislodged.”
Similar violations happened on three more days until the city brought it into compliance more than a month later, on Sept. 25, 2024.
Marion Suitor, a spokesperson for the city’s public works department, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield in an email that rain played into the problems.
“The City during the 2024 construction phase was following the approved temporary water management plan when two major rainfall events during the summer resulted in some sediment and construction debris escaping the water management infrastructure. The City worked with DEQ at the time to fix the issue and to prevent further discharges for the duration of the construction. No further problems arose,” she said.
The city has paid its fine, Suitor said.
