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PA OREGON CORPORATION SENTENCED FOR POLLUTING CREEK
Release Date: 11/20/98
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1998
OREGON CORPORATION SENTENCED FOR POLLUTING CREEK
Smurfit Newsprint Corp. of Sweet Home, Ore., pleaded guilty on Nov. 10, to violating the Clean Water Act and was sentenced by the U.S. district Court for the District of Oregon in Portland to pay a $50,000 fine. The court also ordered the defendant to provide $7,500 to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and $7,500 to the Western States Hazardous Waste
Project. Smurfit manufactures exterior siding at the Sweet Home facility. The company admitted that in March 1995 it discharged industrial wastewater containing phenol and formaldehyde into Cotton Creek, which is a tributary of the Santiam River. Not only was the discharge potentially harmful to fish and other aquatic life, but it also caused the nearby city of Albany, Ore., to temporarily suspend the use of the Santiam River as a primary source of drinking water. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Oregon State Police.
R-157 ###
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