Judge fines former Port of Astoria director
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 10:02 AM PDT
ASTORIA (AP) — The former director of the Port of Astoria has been sentenced to pay a $5,000 fine and spend a year on probation for a Clean Water Act violation stemming from the 2005 dredging season.
Peter Gearin, who pleaded guilty in February, told the court Monday he was sorry for the violation.
‘‘As executive director of the Port of Astoria, it was my job to make sure that all regulations and permits were complied with at all times,’’ Gearin told U.S. District Court Judge Ancer Haggerty. ‘‘I am very sorry for not meeting that responsibility in this case. This was my mistake, and I take accountability for it.’’
In 2005, the port was up against a deadline for dredging the waterfront to accommodate the cruise ship business. Some material that needed to be cleared from the river bottom had tested positive for contaminants, so it had to be stored on land. The Port had only one place to store contaminated spoils, and it wasn’t big enough to accommodate all the dredged material at once.
To clear more storage space, the Port illegally discharged dredged material into the Columbia River estuary without permission from state or federal regulators.
