Environmental groups sue Grabhorn Landfill
Lawsuit asks federal judge to impose fines going back to May 2003
The Northwest Environmental Defense Center and Friends of the Tualatin Wildlife Refuge are suing the owner of Lakeside Reclamation Landfill in Washington County to block water flowing from the site to the Tualatin River.
The lawsuit, filed May 7 in Portland’s U.S. District Court, was brought under the federal Clean Water Act. It claims that Howard Grabhorn, who owns the landfill near Beaverton, needs to have a national pollution discharge permit and asks a federal judge to impose daily fines of between $27,500 and $32,500 until Grabhorn obtains the proper permit.
No court date has been set for the lawsuit. Grahhorn has not responded to the lawsuit. More than two months ago, when the lawsuit was threatened, Grabhorn’s representative said the groups were misinformed about the landfill’s discharges. Much of the information in the lawsuit was based on a hasty state Department of Environmental Quality inspection, the representative said in February.
Grabhorn’s Lakeside Reclamation Landfill began operating in 1957 on land southwest of Beaverton and west of Bull Mountain. The landfill covers 33 acres of the 126.2 acres owned by Grabhorn’s family.
According to DEQ records, the landfill is expected to cover 43 acres when it reaches capacity.
The landfill accepts mostly construction demolition waste. DEQ allowed the landfill to take non-hazardous industrial waste sludge from Tektronix.
About 1,200 feet of the landfill property’s southern boundary is only 75 feet from the Tualatin River.
During a Jan. 8 inspection of the landfill, 14930 S.W. Vandermost Road, two DEQ officials discovered that runoff from the landfill’s composting activities was collected in a series of ponds and then flowed into the small creek.
According to the lawsuit, water from the landfill’s composting operation seeps into the creek and then into the Tualatin River. The lawsuit says that when it rains, water flows over industrial waste and “collects pollutants.”
The lawsuit asks that the judge impose fines for every day it has rained in the area since May 7, 2003.