State Reduces Pollution Fine By $143,000 In Return For Paying Only $34,000, Plating Firm Agrees To ‘Zero Discharges’ By Fall Of 2004

Wed., Oct. 27, 1999

By Karen Dorn Steele karend@spokesman.com

A Spokane plating company will pay $34,000 to resolve state hazardous waste violations instead of a much larger fine proposed last year.

As part of a settlement announced this week by the Washington Department of Ecology, Inland Empire Plating/Middco Tool & Equipment Co. has agreed to comply with all state waste regulations and reach “zero discharges” by September 2004.

“This innovative agreement allows us to work with the company to prevent pollution,” said Greg Sorlie, the Ecology Department’s hazardous waste program manager.

The state’s willingness to reduce the fine means owner Don Middaugh “can spend most of the money on improving the facility and reducing any impacts it might have on the environment,” said Craig Trueblood, Middaugh’s attorney.

The Ecology Department fined the company $177,000 in July 1998 for improperly storing and disposing of hazardous materials at its plating and metal fabrication facility at 2401 N. Eastern Road.

The original fine was the fifth-largest ever levied by the department. It came after a 1998 inspection revealed that the plating facility, which generates wastes with substantial quantities of heavy metals and toxic chemicals, wasn’t following state rules for storing and disposing of dangerous wastes.

Department inspectors said they were especially concerned because the company is within several hundred feet of one of Spokane’s main drinking-water wells over the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie aquifer.

Middaugh appealed the fine to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board last year.

Ecology negotiated a lower fine and the hearings board approved the settlement because the company was making substantial progress in cleaning up its site, training staff and developing emergency plans, said department spokeswoman Jani Gilbert.

Part of the fine, $10,000, will go to Spokane’s regional hazardous materials team.

The plant is being reconfigured to reduce the amount of water used in the plating process, which will result in far less wastewater.

The company also has agreed to install containment for its main product storage area and seal its floors to guard against spills.

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