From: Susan Hansen
Sent: Thu Jul 13 11:35:24 2017
To: DECONCINI Nina
Cc: jason.miner@oregon.gov; KRON Michael C; Richard Whitman
Subject: RE: Molalla wastewater issues
Importance: Normal
Nina,
You failed to answer my current question regarding whether or not there was information I could formally request - note I did NOT ask you to furnish anything without our filing a request.
So I will simply mark my calendar and do regular requests since you were NOT transparent at notifying us that there were not one but two proposed MAOs or that there was the July 5 meeting scheduled. As I stated, I am more than happy to file regular request in a formal manner. My interest was saving DEQ staff time if there was nothing to share. We now understand that you are refusing to even answer simple questions about a huge problem city we have spent years monitoring.
There apparently is a big gap between what you think is worth notifying the concerned public about and what we believe is essential to see.
Susan Hansen
Bear Creek Recovery
-----Original Message-----
From: nina.deconcini@state.or.us
Sent: Thu, 13 Jul 2017 18:22:07 +0000
To: foxglovefarm@inbox.com
Subject: RE: Molalla wastewater issues
Susan,
DEQ is committed to full transparency as well. We appreciate that you would like documents that are public records to be sent to you as they are available. We also require everyone to complete a public records request because we need to accurately measure the number of requests we get and the time they take to process so we know exactly how many resources are needed to fulfill this essential function of DEQ and state government.
In response to your questions about whether DEQ has sent any official violation letter regarding the City of Molalla’s discharges, I have pasted the two email responses in highlighted text below that I sent to you last week. The answers remains the same.
Thank you.
Nina
From: DECONCINI Nina
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2017 9:22 AM
To: 'Susan Hansen' <foxglovefarm@inbox.com>
Cc: YELTON-BRAM Tiffany <YELTON-Bram.Tiffany@deq.state.or.us>
Subject: RE: Molalla illegal spring discharges into the Molalla River
Susan,
We can inform you of our decision after we have communicated with the City. As I stated below, we are in the process of establishing an MAO which will take into account all of the past violations and pending enforcement. This is the information we are able to share with you at this time.
Nina
From: Susan Hansen [mailto:foxglovefarm@inbox.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2017 8:33 AM
To: DECONCINI Nina <nina.deconcini@state.or.us>
Subject: RE: Molalla illegal spring discharges into the Molalla River
Nina, Is DEQ writing a PEN about these CLASS ONE violations? When will a PEN be available? Susan
-----Original Message-----
From: nina.deconcini@state.or.us
Sent: Thu, 6 Jul 2017 15:25:52 +0000
Subject: RE: Molalla illegal spring discharges into the Molalla River
Susan,
Thanks for your email and voicemails. The out of season discharges are violations of Molalla’s permit. As we are now in the process of crafting an MAO with the City, all of the violations and outstanding enforcement actions will be factored into a final MAO. This process will take some time. We will keep you updated as there is information to share.
Nina
From: Susan Hansen [mailto:foxglovefarm@inbox.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2017 5:05 PM
To: DECONCINI Nina <nina.deconcini@state.or.us>; YELTON-BRAM Tiffany <tiffany.yelton-bram@state.or.us>
Subject: Molalla illegal spring discharges into the Molalla River
Dear Nina and Tiffany,
See below. Is DEQ considering these discharge events not to be violations of the permit? If so why are they not violations of the permit?
Susan Hansen
Bear Creek Recovery
From: Susan Hansen [mailto:foxglovefarm@inbox.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2017 10:05 AM
To: DECONCINI Nina <nina.deconcini@state.or.us>
Cc: Richard Whitman <richard.whitman@state.or.us>; jason.miner@oregon.gov; michael.c.kron@doj.state.or.us
Subject: Molalla wastewater issues
Dear Nina,
Has DEQ written any official violation letter or email response regarding the May/ June 24 days of non-permitted discharge into the Molalla River and/or any official letter or email response to the July 5 meeting where Molalla requested permit modification and you discussed the pending MAO?
I'm willing to write a blanket public info request often if DEQ fails to be open and transparent about documents, but it would seem more efficient use of DEQ staff time to know before I write the PIRs if there is anything to obtain - that way DEQ staff intake doesn't have to waste the time of staff looking for documents/emails that don't exist.
I'm all about noting the waste of staff time equals a waste of public money and said so directly to the DEQ Commissioners yesterday in public comment (attached). But my group is all about full transparency - we have spent years working on compliance issues here and we refuse not to be fully informed about the progress or lack there of in regards to enforcement of the Clean Water Act and the potential MAO.
It was stated in the notes I obtained from the July 5 meeting that DEQ should issue a prompt response to Molalla. If no response has yet been sent when do you expect to respond?
Susan Hansen
Bear Creek Recovery