Environmentalists Sue OR. Department of Environmental Quality
Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 21:00 CDT
On the same day the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality held a public hearing to take comments on a proposed polystyrene foam board manufacturing plant proposed for Gresham, environmental groups on Thursday announced plans to sue DEQ in federal court over its permitting of the plant.
The Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, on behalf of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center and the Sierra Club's Oregon chapter, sent formal notice Thursday to DEQ of its intent to sue for what it alleges are violations of the Clean Air Act and Oregon law.
The advocacy center alleges DEQ violated the laws by refusing to obtain and release data DEQ used in the permitting process for the plant, which Owens Corning Corp. plans to build at 18456 N.E. Wilkes Road in Gresham.
DEQ declined to comment on the proposed lawsuit Thursday afternoon.
The plans to sue DEQ come on the heels of a suit filed in November 2004 by the environmental groups against Owens to halt construction, a suit that's at present bogged down in the discovery process, Mark Riskedahl, NEDC's executive director, said.
Riskedahl and NEDC sued in November because the proposed plant would emit HCFC-142b, a potent greenhouse gas classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an ozone-depleting substance.
NEDC says the plant would emit more than 283 tons of the gas per year, which would require the plant to meet stringent federal legal requirements, but Owens contends the plant would only emit 226 tons, which would put the plant below a 250-ton threshold at which point permitting becomes more difficult.
Owens upon proposing the facility said the plant would emit more than 250 tons, but the company has since revised its estimates.
NEDC is suing, Riskedahl said, because of DEQ's alleged failure to require Owens to submit data supporting those estimates and make such data publicly available.
Source: Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR)
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