Sierra Club confronts Farwest Steel.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

The Sierra Club, a San Francisco-based nonprofit best known for its lobbying on national environmental issues, is taking on a Eugene-based steel fabricator in a citizen lawsuit filed under the federal Clean Water Act.

Jack Clark, president of Glenwood-based Farwest Steel Corp., declined to comment Friday, citing his attorney's advice.

Third-party lawsuits under the Clean Water Act are "becoming more common each year," said Tim McFetridge, a senior engineer with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in Salem.

Citizen groups appear to be exercising their rights under the act to file citizen lawsuits when they believe state regulators aren't enforcing the law diligently enough.

In its suit filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene, the Sierra Club alleges that Farwest Steel Corp. has fallen behind on reporting requirements under its state permit to discharge storm water into the Glenwood Slough, which then flows into the Willamette River.

Farwest is among a group of companies operating in certain industries that are required to monitor the quality of their storm water and report those results to the DEQ by July 15 each year.

"We used to do a lot more compliance for those permits than we do now, due to shifting of resources," McFetridge said. "Currently we don't get involved with those facilities unless we receive a complaint, or are contacted by a company requesting technical assistance."

The Sierra Club also claims that Farwest has failed to file a storm water pollution control plan - another requirement of its state storm water permit. The plan should contain such things as a description of industrial activities at the site, a list of significant materials stored or used at the site that could end up in storm water, a description of how those materials are stored and handled, and a program to prevent spills and respond to them if they do occur, according to the lawsuit.

The DEQ compliance officer overseeing Farwest Steel was not available for comment on Friday.

However, the agency's file on Farwest contained faxes sent earlier this month with the company's "discharge monitoring report" for 2004 - the report that should have been filed by July 15 of last year.

A couple of local environmental groups brought this case to the Sierra Club's attention, said Douglas Quirk, staff attorney with the Oregon Clean Water Action Project, a Eugene-based nonprofit advocacy group for the Clean Water Act. In routine records checks, the Portland-based Northwest Environmental Defense Center noted that Farwest was behind on its DEQ filings. Quirk said that group notified him, then he contacted the Sierra Club.

Typically, once companies are notified that they're violating the Clean Water Act, they quickly respond with fixes, Quirk said.

Quirk sent a letter to Farwest Steel on April 21, 2004, notifying the company that it wasn't complying with the Clean Water Act. The company didn't make changes within 60 days, so Quirk said the Sierra Club followed up with the lawsuit.

Privately held Farwest Steel is headquartered in Glenwood and has nine locations in the Northwest, according to its Web site. The company makes reinforced steel and distributes carbon steel products.

With annual revenues of $100 million to $150 million, according to Oregon Business Magazine, Farwest is one of the largest steel service centers on the West Coast. The 48-year-old company has 234 employees in Oregon and 409 employees companywide, the magazine said.