LC gets $77,000 fine for polluting streams with pool water

Lewis & Clark sure does love the environment!

That makes it all the more embarrassing when news like this gets out…

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $77,927 penalty to Lewis & Clark College in southwest Portland for discharging chlorinated wastewater from a swimming pool to a nearby stream for more than four decades.

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When notified of the discharge, Lewis and Clark College immediately cooperated by ceasing further discharges from the pool. The college is constructing a system to discharge the swimming pool wastewater to the sanitary sewer.  Lewis and Clark’s corrective action is reflected in the penalty.

So, we’re stopping. But how did we not know this was happening for over 40 years?

Read the whole news release from the DEQ after the jump.

Also… we have a new President! Y’all knew that already, right?

DEQ Issues $77,927 Penalty to Lewis & Clark College for Wastewater Discharges without a Permit

Lewis & Clark College has until Aug. 24 to appeal the penalty.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $77,927 penalty to Lewis & Clark College in southwest Portland for discharging chlorinated wastewater from a swimming pool to a nearby stream for more than four decades.

Located at 0615 SW Palatine Road in Portland, Lewis & Clark constructed the Zehntbauer Natatorium, which houses an indoor swimming pool, in 1969. Since that time, the college has been disposing of wastewater from the swimming pool through its stormwater conveyance system, which discharges to an outfall pipe into a stream to the north of the campus.

On Oct. 12, 2009, while investigating an unrelated water quality complaint, City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services staff observed a discharge of chlorinated water from the outfall pipe into the stream.

Bureau of Environmental Services staff took a water quality sample from the stream. After chemical analysis tests showed a chlorine concentration in excess of water quality standards, they referred the case to DEQ for civil enforcement. DEQ determined that the chlorine concentrations in the stream exceeded the concentration considered acutely toxic to aquatic organisms.

When notified of the discharge, Lewis and Clark College immediately cooperated by ceasing further discharges from the pool. The college is constructing a system to discharge the swimming pool wastewater to the sanitary sewer.  Lewis and Clark’s corrective action is reflected in the penalty.

DEQ issued this penalty because chlorine is a toxic chemical that has negative effects on the aquatic environment and is especially harmful to fish. DEQ staff conducted a biological condition assessment of the stream in July 2010. The assessment concluded that the density and diversity of aquatic invertebrate populations in the stream were significantly impaired due to water quality impacts that likely resulted from the chronic chlorine pollution.

Of the total penalty amount, $66,727 represents the economic benefit the college gained over the years by failing to connect to the sanitary sewer.