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Three Rivers Timber, Inc. Agrees to $6,500 Settlement to Resolve Clean Air Act Violation

Release Date: 09/25/2007
Contact Information: Steven Potokar, (206) 553-6354, potokar.steven@epa.gov or Tony Brown, (206) 553-1203, brown.anthony@epa.gov

(Kamiah, Idaho – Sep. 25, 2007) Three Rivers Timber, Inc., a Kamiah, Idaho, lumber manufacturing facility located on the Nez Perce Reservation, has agreed to pay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a $6,500 penalty for not submitting a required air quality compliance certificate on time.

Three Rivers failed to submit the document – a Title V Annual Compliance Certification for the reporting period from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2006 – to the EPA until August 6, 2007. This violated the company’s Clean Air Act “Title V” operating permit. Three Rivers has been penalized in the past for similar late reporting.

The Title V permit is intended to collect all Clean Air Act requirements that apply to a facility in a single document and to help assure compliance with those requirements. The Annual Certification process is put in place to require facilities to review their permit conditions for compliance and report any deviations.

“We take reporting requirements in our permits very seriously,” said Steven Potokar, EPA’s Region 10 Tribal Air Enforcement officer. “Facilities must submit their reports on time so we can track facility compliance and protect local and regional air quality.”

Three Rivers is a privately held company which operates a lumber manufacturing facility on a 32 acre site within the exterior boundaries of the 1863 Nez Perce Reservation. This facility was issued the Title V permit on October 7, 2002.

According to company officials, Three Rivers had prepared the compliance certification, but failed to submit it on time to EPA. They have cooperated in the enforcement process.