Skagit Hill Recycling, a construction and debris recycling business located in Sedro-Woolley, Wash., received a $46,000 fine from the Washington Department of Ecology for what the agency asserts are water-quality permit violations.
The state is also ordering Skagit Hill to remove a 70-foot pile of ash that came from a sawmill boiler. The ash is known to contain a number of heavy metals, including mercury, lead and arsenic.
Other possible polluting waste, including roof material, carpeting and drywall, has been found on the site by Skagit County and state inspectors.
The piles – which can leach toxic pollutants when rain falls on them – sit on porous sand and gravel. The materials include boiler ash, concrete and asphalt chunks, tires, and construction debris such as asphalt shingles, fiberglass insulation, plastic piping, copper tubing and painted wood.
Ecology asked Scott Waldal, the owner of the solid-waste dump, to remove the ash pile in 2008. The Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has brought separate action against the company for land use code violations.
"The ash pile and other materials pose a serious and direct threat to ground water quality," said Richard Grout, who manages the DOE’s Bellingham Field Office. "We and our county partners have visited, called and written Skagit Hill over and over. It’s past time to get those materials out of that gravel pit."
Ecology’s penalty also cites Skagit Hill for failing to have and implement four plans that meet sand and gravel water quality permit requirements:
•Water Quality Monitoring Plan.
•Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan.
•Erosion and Sediment Control Plan.
•Spill Control Plan.
Skagit Hill may apply to Ecology to reconsider the penalty and order, or may appeal either or both to the Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board within 30 days.