Northwest Alloys, Corps Reach Settlement Agreement on Wetland Impacts

A settlement agreement reached last week between the Army Corps of Engineers and Northwest Alloys, Inc., resolves a past permit violation in Longview with a planned purchase of wetland bank credits to make up for wetland impacts from an unauthorized mechanical clearing at a site along the Washington side of the Columbia River.

The property owned by Northwest Alloys is located at 4029 Industrial Way in Longview, Wash. The unauthorized discharges into waters of the U.S. occurred between 2006 and 2009, when Chinook Ventures (CVI) leased the site.

In 2012 the Army Corps of Engineers notified CVI and Northwest Alloys of a violation for mechanically clearing 20 acres of wetlands at the site without a permit, which was required under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.

The agreement calls for off-site mitigation from the Columbia River Wetland Mitigation Bank. An option has been secured to purchase a total of 13.62 credits, with 2.5 in 2013, 7.5 in 2015 and 3.62 in 2017.

If credits are purchased as planned, the credits are considered to meet the settlement agreement’s intent to compensate for the prior temporal loss of wetland functions.

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Press Release, July 18, 2014