06/30/2009

Associated Press

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.

Gearin, who could have been sentenced to prison, was fired in 2007. The port voted earlier this year to plead guilty to violating federal and state dredging permits, accepting civil penalties of $125,000 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and $45,400 from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

The Daily Astorian newspaper reports that the Oregon attorney general's office continues to investigate port business deals that occurred during Gearin's tenure.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Evans asked without success for the judge to raise Gearin's fine to $20,000.

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Information from: The Daily Astorian, http://www.dailyastorian.com