For scores of sewage-related infractions, state environmental inspectors have fined Lebanon close to $34,000, one of the highest fines in the region, and mandated that the city engage a consultant.
One of those infractions occurred in July 2023 when the city dumped over one million gallons of feces and untreated waste fluid into the South Santiam River.
Between 2020 and 2024, the city allegedly neglected to test wastewater 275 times and gave the state false results, according to compliance authorities with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
A civil penalty letter issued in December stated that in certain instances, the reported results concealed pollutants that exceeded restrictions under a state permit.
In order to guarantee that the operation of the city’s wastewater treatment facility does not negatively impact the South Santiam River, the people and wildlife that rely on it, or other nearby waterways, officials stated in the notice that adherence to the permit’s requirements is crucial.
Officials stated in the notice that the department sent Lebanon an email with instructions.
However, according to the officials, Lebanon persisted in providing erroneous summary data.
At a January meeting, City Manager Ron Whitlatch informed elected leaders that Lebanon will challenge the state penalty.
It was mostly about reporting and how we’re reporting. Whitlatch told the city councilors, “We’ll work through that, but it feels a little heavy-handed by DEQ.”
On July 10, 2023, a worker apparently neglected to close a valve on a solid waste settling tank, resulting in Lebanon sending about 42,000 pounds of solid trash to the Santiam, according to the department. During the summer, Lebanon’s permit permits up to 500 pounds of solid garbage every day.
Public Works Director Jason Williams said waste probably flowed out of the plant for hours before employees detected the open valve when they began their shifts the next morning, but he declined to estimate how much untreated sewage ended up in the river at the time.
According to the agency, approximately one million gallons of untreated sewage were inadvertently emptied from Lebanon. At its wastewater plant, Lebanon handles up to 15 million gallons of sewage per day, with an average daily intake of 2 to 8 million gallons.
In May, June, and December of 2022, Lebanon also went over solid waste limitations.
Oregon discovered that Lebanon also failed to examine daily chlorine samples from October 2022 to June 2023 and treated wastewater for contaminants like ammonia and E. coli in May 2023.
In addition to imposing a $33,800 fine for false reporting and sending excessive amounts of solid waste, chlorine, E. coli, and other organic material to the Santiam, Oregon mandated that Lebanon hire a wastewater treatment specialist to assess the city’s procedures for maintaining, monitoring, and running the facility close to the northeastern edge of the city.
The fine is the most the Oregon environment department has imposed on the city since 2009, when it penalized Cascade Mobile Home Park over $90,000 for water quality breaches, according to an analysis of 20 years’ worth of state records. In the same year, Lebanon Hardboard was penalized over $63,500 by Oregon for offenses relating to asbestos.
With a median cost of $7,046 for breaking state environmental law, the fine places Lebanon’s local government in the 92nd percentile of 3,777 fines imposed since 2004 throughout Oregon.
Albany Democrat-Herald, Oregon, 2025. Go to the democratherald.com website. Tribune Content Agency, LLC is the distributor.
