A San Juan Island sand and gravel mine was fined $53,000 by the Washington State Department of Ecology after years of noncompliance.
The Egg Lake Quarry, operated by Myron Williams, Inc., was fined for “failing to protect water quality at its mining operation” after years of technical assistance, a field penalty and warnings, according to a statement from Ecology.
“This operation continually fails to meet their responsibilities to protect water quality and comply with standard permit requirements, leaving us no choice but to issue a fine for these violations,” said Vince McGowan, Water Quality program manager for Ecology. “Moving forward, we expect the organization to make improvements in their operations to better protect water quality and the surrounding area from the hazardous substances they have onsite.”
The department has tried to bring the business into compliance since 2018 through site visits and warning letters, and in 2021, Ecology inspectors documented several permit violations, including failure to safely store petroleum product and other hazardous substances, failure to clean up spills and leaks of pollutants, failure to label potentially hazardous substances, failure to monitor stormwater discharges to groundwater, among other concerns.
Water quality penalties and fines go towards Washington’s Coastal Protection Fund.
The fund, which distributes the Terry Husseman Account Grants, supports small water quality and fish enhancement projects around Washington.
Myron Williams, Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.
