Mine fined over $50K for polluting San Juan Island water

A mine owner on San Juan Island is being fined $53,000 for five years worth of documented violations of environmental law and polluting water on the island.

The Washington Department of Ecology issued the penalty to Myron Williams, Inc., for failing to protect water quality at its mining operation at Egg Lake Quarry on San Juan Island.

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The department said they had already given repeated technical assistance, warning letters, and a field penalty from ecology inspectors, and Myron William did not comply with requirements.

Ecology inspectors documented numerous permit violations, including failure to safely store petroleum products 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, and failure to submit information and reports in a 2021 inspection.

The follow-up inspection in August 2022 showed many violations had not been addressed.

“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.”

Myron Williams, Inc., has 30 days to pay the fine or to appeal the penalty to Washington’s Pollution Control Hearings Board. KIRO Newsradio reached out to Myron Williams for a statement on the appeal but has not received a response at the time of publishing.