Imagine your town’s water source silently poisoned for years, and the very watchdogs meant to protect you did nothing. A shocking investigation reveals how an Oregon wood treater got away with contaminating a community’s drinking water with a dangerous chemical, while regulators turned a blind eye. Why was this allowed to happen?
An alarming investigative report uncovers how a prominent wood treatment facility in Sheridan, Oregon, systematically polluted a town’s primary water source for years with a now-banned, highly toxic chemical, while environmental regulators, fully aware of the egregious violations, failed to intervene effectively. This shocking revelation highlights a critical breakdown in oversight and raises profound questions about public safety and corporate accountability in the face of environmental peril, contributing to an emerging Oregon Water Pollution crisis.
The Stella-Jones Corporation, a multinational entity, inherited a site already designated a Superfund location due to prior pentachlorophenol contamination. Despite extensive cleanups, new pollution incidents began cropping up, fueling the Stella-Jones Controversy. It was local resident Mike Hailey who first noticed something amiss in the South Yamhill River in the summer of 2023, observing a drastic disappearance of crayfish downstream from the facility, an early warning sign of ecological distress that was tragically ignored by authorities due to pervasive Regulatory Failure.
For nearly four years, state and federal regulators were actively investigating Stella-Jones for new contamination tainting both the Superfund site and the South Yamhill River, the drinking water source for nearly 6,000 residents. Despite this knowledge, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) continued to permit the company to discharge polluted water, demonstrating severe Environmental Negligence. It was only after a lengthy process that Stella-Jones faced unlawful water pollution charges from the Yamhill District Attorney’s Office, resulting in a plea agreement and a maximum $250,000 fine for months of pollution, a sum strikingly disproportionate to the corporation’s substantial profits.
InvestigateWest’s in-depth review of public records, including inspection reports and violation notices, paints a disturbing picture of DEQ’s actions. The agency not only kept potential contamination of the town’s water supply hidden from the public but also repeatedly failed to take decisive measures to halt Stella-Jones from releasing more contaminated water, even while simultaneously building a criminal negligence case. This sustained inaction allowed the illegal dumping of stormwater containing excessive pentachlorophenol to persist, raising serious concerns about transparency and the efficacy of environmental protection.
Pentachlorophenol, restricted to industrial use in the 1980s and now facing a nationwide ban, is a potent carcinogen linked to various cancers, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Its byproducts, dioxins and furans, pose even greater cancer risks. The ongoing spread of this chemical and its dangerous derivatives beyond the facility, sometimes in hazardous amounts, into nearby waterways, a Head Start preschool, and residential areas, as detailed in a preliminary EPA report, signifies a broader Public Health Crisis that remains largely unaddressed and unquantified by state and federal agencies.
The situation in Sheridan mirrors, yet differs from, other polluted sites like the J.H. Baxter facility in west Eugene, where community advocacy eventually spurred health assessments revealing elevated cancer rates. In Sheridan, despite two years since initial complaints, regulators have yet to explain the full risk to Stella-Jones workers, residents, or the environment. No state agency has conducted a comprehensive health study of the South Yamhill River, a critical spawning ground for threatened steelhead trout, coho salmon, and Pacific lamprey, leaving the true environmental and biological impact unknown, highlighting further Environmental Negligence.
Stella-Jones CEO Eric Vachon stated environmental compliance is a core priority, citing investments in technology and processes to operate safely. However, the company initially disputed many violations and suggested the pollution stemmed from EPA’s Superfund management failures, contributing to the Stella-Jones Controversy. Meanwhile, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, whose reservation is upstream, have urgently called on both the EPA and DEQ to expedite actions to halt the spreading pollution and address potential health impacts on fish and other species, underscoring the severe intergenerational and ecological consequences of Regulatory Failure.
Despite these developments, the full scope of accountability remains elusive, with residents like Christina Avila still seeking answers about drinking water safety and the impact on local schools, indicating a persistent Public Health Crisis. The EPA’s ongoing investigation, which suggests Stella-Jones is indeed responsible for at least some of the new contamination, has yet to be publicly released. Until these federal reports are finalized and DEQ completes its belated enforcement actions, the community of Sheridan, the local ecosystem, and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde are left in an unsettling state of uncertainty, waiting for transparent answers and decisive action to protect their fundamental right to clean water and address the Oregon Water Pollution issue.
