Landowner, Internet group sue REC Silicon

SPOKANE — A civil lawsuit filed against REC Silicon alleges the manufacturer violated state and federal clean air acts and violated emission permits.

Victor C. Jansen, who owns land next to the plant, and a group of people associated with the Web site RECisEXCEPTIONAL, are asking the U.S. District Court to stop construction and the operation of plants three and four at the Moses Lake facility.

The Columbia Basin Herald was told by REC officials they are reviewing the lawsuit and will issue a statement soon.

The suit claims the state Department of Ecology (DOE) didn’t follow proper procedures when it issued a notice of construction approval in January, according to the complaint. Greg McElroy, the group’s attorney, said REC needed the permit before it began construction.

“It’s not like a building permit where you go in and pay the money for it,” he said. “It’s a process that you go through that involves community input … They were structurally complete with their plan before they received their pre-construction approval.”

The order includes “identifying and quantifying the types and amounts of contaminants that the facility has the potential to emit; determining whether the facility requires a full Title V Air Operating Permit; determining whether voluntary limits on production, operations or design will allow a major source to side-step the requirements of a full Title V permit and be classified as a ‘synthetic’ or ‘artificial’ minor source; analyzing alternative to achieve the maximum pollution reduction,” according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs claim DOE sidestepped the public input process and since the order reportedly wasn’t completed correctly, the approval isn’t valid, according to the complaint.

McElroy accuses the company of releasing chemicals and using non-permitted methods to clean the chemicals from machinery. It points to a series of DOE violations, and claims the department didn’t try to make the company change.

“I don’t think they’re unsolvable problems. They’re problems that can be solved, but they need to be solved sooner rather than later,” McElroy said. “They have the same kind of problems in Butte, Mont., but in Butte … they own the land surrounding the facility.”

The plaintiffs are asking for the maximum penalties for what they see as violations of the federal and state clean air acts. The total cost would be about $42,500 per day per violation, according to the complaint.

Along with the penalties, they also want the court to make the DOE rescind its approval for the construction, until it can be done properly, according to the complaint.

“We’d like nothing better than for REC to get theses issues behind it and move forward and be a very, very successful company,” he said. “And we’ve seen some positive signs from them, but it’s just not a big enough priority and it’s not moving forward fast enough.”