Illegal dump may lead to charges

The property owner of an illegal toxic waste dump discovered two months ago above the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer could face criminal charges this week, said Geoff Harvey, waste and remediation manager for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s northern division.

Harvey said the agency is “dealing with what clearly seems to be criminal behavior” in the case of the dump found on Wayne Galland’s property at 1034 Chilco Road near Athol. Agency Director Toni Hardesty is expected to make a decision this week.

Although investigators believe criminal charges are warranted, they worry such charges might also delay cleanup, Harvey said. Civil penalties, on the other hand, could speed cleanup, he said.

Investigators learned of the incident from a dump truck driver who signed an affidavit swearing he hauled several loads of what he suspected was oil and solvent-contaminated waste to Galland’s property last year, where it was then buried. The material was hauled from a closed industrial site between Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene.

In an earlier interview, Galland insisted nothing dirty had been dumped on his property. An investigation, however, quickly revealed the presence of dangerous chemicals in the gravelly soil, including petroleum. The agency will not release specific test results until a decision has been made on how to proceed with the case, Harvey said. Idaho officials doubt any of the chemicals made it into the aquifer.

Boise

Beauclair named to national post

Tom Beauclair, Idaho’s state corrections director from 2001 to 2006, has been named deputy director of the National Institute of Correction in Washington, D.C.

Brent Reinke, current Idaho director, said, “Tom moved the agency forward significantly during his tenure. Because of his leadership, Idaho corrections are recognized nationwide as a leader in re-entry and treatment.”

Beauclair started his career in corrections as a guard at the old Idaho State Penitentiary in 1972 and rose to the department’s top job. Then-Gov. Jim Risch replaced him last summer with former Ada County Sheriff Vaughn Killeen. Current Gov. Butch Otter then replaced Killeen with Reinke, who had served as the state’s director of juvenile corrections.

Post Falls

Bear hunters found in good condition

Two bear hunters were found safe Monday afternoon after spending a night in the woods.

Post Falls residents Craig Wies, 49, and Russell Lowe, 65, were reported missing Sunday night after they didn’t return from bear hunting in northeast Kootenai County.

Searchers found the men – warm and dry – in their vehicle about a mile off Bunco Road. The two spent the night in the Chevy pickup after it got stuck in the snow on a remote Forest Service road, sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said.

Coeur d’Alene

City officials suspect impersonation

City officials are worried that a man who is an outspoken critic of the Salvation Army Kroc Community Center may have impersonated a city employee when asking to see site plans at a private architect’s office.

Deputy City Attorney Warren Wilson sent Larry Spencer a letter Friday warning him not to present himself as a representative of the city or Mayor Sandi Bloem.

The letter states that Spencer’s conduct, whether intentional or not, “certainly led the people you spoke with to believe that you were there on city business.” Wilson added that in some situations such conduct is a criminal offense.

Spencer said Monday he did visit Architects West and ask to see site plans. He said that the two women who helped him never asked for identification and that he didn’t give his name other than to tell one of the workers he was a private citizen.

“It makes the city look like they are doing anything they can to paint me as something other than I am,” said Spencer, who has publicly questioned the city’s decision to spend money on dirt to fill the site, a former gravel pit on Ramsey Road.

Wilson said Monday the letter sent to the Hayden address Spencer recently gave the City Council was returned. Wilson said he read Spencer the letter Friday.

Spencer said he never gave the city a Hayden address and that he has mail service in both Cocolalla and Spirit Lake.

From staff reports