Pacific Seafood has spent years delaying the deployment of pollution controls at its coastal processing plants, state regulators say, allegedly harming Oregon waters and giving the company an unfair advantage over competitors that play by the rules.So the state Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday that it is levying $3.2 million in civil penalties against the Oregon company for alleged violations at three processing sites on the coast. Pacific Seafood has 20 days to appeal. The state said the company can still mitigate the penalties by installing pollution controls.“Pacific Seafood’s repeated wastewater violations are polluting Oregon’s waters,” said Erin Saylor, who manages the department’s compliance and enforcement office. She said state regulators had an agreement in 2017 for the company to install pollution controls but that Pacific Seafood hadn’t done so.Keep Reading
