Valley Crest Foods, Inc, Violating Clean Water Act, Oregon 2020

EUGENE, Ore.—A Myrtle Point, Oregon corporation has pleaded guilty to repeatedly discharging milk and other pollutants into the public water treatment facility, causing waste water with elevated E. coli bacteria to enter the South Fork of the Coquille River, resulting in a public health advisory, announced U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams.

Valley Crest Foods, Inc. (Valley Crest), a creamery, pleaded guilty today to four counts of violating the Clean Water Act.

"The United States Attorney’s Office takes seriously any business, corporation, or individual that bypasses federal environmental laws to maximize profits." said Billy J. Williams, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon. "We will continue to aggressively prosecute individuals and corporations whose illegal conduct threatens our region’s natural resources and public health."

"We are all responsible for keeping our communities safe and protecting our natural resources, and you can’t send significant amounts of corrosive wastes down the drain and expect the sewage treatment process to work properly – especially after being told repeatedly that it would not. Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that we will hold violators responsible – even criminally responsible where that is warranted – for breaking our environmental laws" said Jessica Taylor, Director of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division.

According to court documents, in 2017 and 2018, Defendant Valley Crest Foods, Inc. was regularly discharging wastewater to the sewer system that caused disruptions at the City of Myrtle Point’s publicly owned treatment works (POTW). These disruptions resulted in the POTW’s inability to effectively process the waste it received from the local community.

The Defendant was ordered to pay a fine of $20,000 per count, for a total of $80,000.

The investigation was conducted by EPA Special Agent Eric Martenson. The case was prosecuted by Pam Paaso, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon and Karla Gebel Perrin, Special Assistant United States Attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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