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Portland Meadows Race Track Draws EPA Complaint

Release Date: 4/17/2000
Contact Information: Bub Loiselle
loiselle.bub@epa.gov
(206) 553-6901

April 17, 2000 - - - - - - - - - 00-22


Agency Files First Civil Judicial Action Against a
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO)

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon filed a suit late Friday against the New Portland Meadows race track for continuous, ongoing violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The suit, filed on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is EPA’s first civil judicial enforcement against a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) under the Clean Water Act.

The track is considered a CAFO for the number of horses housed during the year and the manure and other wastes that are discharged to ditches that connect to the Columbia Slough and Columbia River.

The Complaint names The New Portland Meadows, Inc. as defendant and asks that the court impose a civil penalty for non-compliance with both the Clean Water Act and a July 1999 EPA Administrative Order. The maximum penalty under the Act is $27,500 per day for each violation. The Complaint also seeks to:

• Prohibit the unauthorized discharge by Defendant of any pollutants from the Facility to navigable waters of the United States; and
• Order the Defendant to implement interim measures to minimize the discharge of pollutants from the Facility until such time as compliance with the Clean Water Act is achieved.

According to Bub Loiselle, manager of EPA’s water permit compliance unit in Seattle, the Raceway’s long record of non-compliance is coming to a close.

“Frankly, we wish it hadn’t come to this,” said Loiselle. “But EPA believes that Portland Meadows’ decade of non-compliance with both the federal and state water quality protection laws warrants intervention by the U.S. Department of Justice. By continuing to discharge manure and other wastes in violation of the Clean Water Act, Portland Meadows has demonstrated little or no respect for Oregon water quality. It’s an attitude that I believe needs to change.”

Both EPA and Oregon Department of Agriculture consider the facility a CAFO, which is subject to an effluent limitation guideline prohibiting all discharge of process waste water except as a result of certain extreme storm events . Since 1996, the race track has had coverage under a state-issued Water Pollution Control Facility (WPCF) permit with a “zero discharge” requirement.

The Raceway stables approximately 950 horses during the winter racing season. The facility’s waste disposal system consists of directly discharging most liquid wastes through an on-site underground storm sewer to a drainage ditch leading to the Columbia Slough. Studies have shown that animal waste can introduce harmful organisms, including E. coli, fecal coliform, Salmonella, and other pathogens to receiving waters. Samples taken at the discharge point from the race track have contained concentrations of fecal coliform and E. coli as high as 230,000 colonies per 100 milliliters of water. In addition to human health concerns, discharged animal waste can create intense Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) which robs the water of oxygen, suffocating fish and other aquatic organisms.

The United States and the New Portland Meadows have been unable to reach an agreement on the terms of a settlement. Any agreement reached now would be incorporated into a judicially-approved consent decree requiring compliance with the Clean Water Act and assessment of an appropriate civil penalty.