A Toxic Cloud Over Pasco, and Nobody Called

On the last day of August 2022, something went wrong at the FreezePack food processing facility at 302 North Venture Road in Pasco, Washington. Ammonia, the industrial refrigerant used to keep frozen potato products cold, started leaking. By the time it stopped, between 305 and 350 pounds of the gas had been pumped into the open air above a working-class city in Franklin County. That is not a small amount. It is three and a half times the legal threshold at which federal law says you must stop what you are doing and immediately call for help.

The company knew. Internal records establish that Oregon Potato Company had knowledge of the release and that it had surpassed the mandatory reporting quantity no later than 1:04 PM Pacific time on August 31, 2022. Federal law under CERCLA Section 103(a) requires “immediate” notification to the National Response Center the moment a person in charge of a facility knows a reportable release has occurred. “Immediate” is not a flexible word. It does not mean “when convenient” or “after lunch.” It means now.

The call to the National Response Center did not come until 3:33 PM Pacific, a delay of at least 149 minutes from the point at which the company’s own knowledge is documented. That 2.5-hour window was time the community of Pasco did not have. Emergency managers could not mobilize. Local hospitals could not prepare. Parents had no reason to bring children inside. Schools had no reason to close windows. The invisible gas had no warning label on the open sky above the neighborhood.

The failure extended far beyond one delayed phone call. Under EPCRA Section 304, a facility operator must also immediately notify the State Emergency Response Commission and the Local Emergency Planning Committee whenever a release of an Extremely Hazardous Substance at or above the reportable quantity occurs. These are the agencies specifically designed to coordinate community protection. Oregon Potato Company did not immediately notify the Washington State Department of Ecology. Oregon Potato Company did not immediately notify Franklin County Emergency Management. These are not technicalities. These are the two agencies whose entire purpose is to stand between an industrial chemical release and the people living nearby. The company bypassed both of them.

Then there is the matter of the written follow-up notices. After an emergency release of this magnitude, EPCRA Section 304(c) requires a written follow-up notice to both the SERC and LEPC “as soon as practicable.” The EPA Consent Agreement confirms that Oregon Potato Company submitted both follow-up notices on April 18, 2025. The release occurred on August 31, 2022. That is a gap of approximately 966 days. Two years, seven months, and eighteen days. The phrase “as soon as practicable” does not mean 966 days. It does not mean two harvests, two fiscal years, and two anniversaries of the original incident. It means promptly. What the company delivered was the opposite of that.

What the Settlement Cannot Measure

Every legal settlement has a number attached to it. In this case, that number is $65,000. That figure is what the EPA and Oregon Potato Company agreed upon to close the books on five federal violations spanning nearly three years of regulatory failure. But the settlement document, for all its precise legal language and carefully structured payment instructions, does not contain a single word about the people who breathed the air above Pasco, Washington on August 31, 2022. It does not describe what ammonia gas does to a human body. It does not document whether anyone was hurt. It does not ask whether the people working nearest the facility were warned. Those costs live entirely outside the ledger, unquantified and unpunished.

Ammonia is not a subtle hazard. At low concentrations, it causes immediate irritation to the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. At higher concentrations, it can cause chemical burns to the airways, pulmonary edema, and in extreme cases, death. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets workplace permissible exposure limits specifically because sustained exposure to ammonia is genuinely dangerous. The 305 to 350 pounds released by FreezePack was not a slow, steady trickle. It was a volume that triggered mandatory federal emergency response thresholds by a factor of three. The community surrounding 302 North Venture Road in Pasco did not know any of this was happening. That is the specific failure the law was designed to prevent, and it is the specific failure that occurred.

Consider what the emergency notification system is actually for. The Local Emergency Planning Committee and the State Emergency Response Commission exist because industrial accidents do not send advance notice. They exist because the gap between “something is wrong” and “the community is in danger” can be measured in minutes. The LEPC for Franklin County is supposed to receive immediate notification so that emergency responders can mobilize, evacuation routes can be activated, and residents with respiratory conditions, elderly people, children, and anyone outside at the time can be warned. Oregon Potato Company chose, whether by negligence or by calculation, to skip that step entirely. No call went to Franklin County Emergency Management. No call went to the Washington State Department of Ecology. The community’s emergency response infrastructure sat idle while ammonia moved through the air above Pasco.

The two-and-a-half-year delay in submitting the written follow-up notices compounds the original harm in ways that are specifically human. The follow-up notice is not just a formality. It is the mechanism by which emergency planners learn what actually happened: how much was released, over what time period, what health effects might be expected, and what steps the facility is taking to prevent recurrence. Franklin County Emergency Management received that written accounting on April 18, 2025. Anyone who experienced unexplained respiratory symptoms on August 31, 2022, or in the days that followed, had no official record connecting those symptoms to a known industrial release. Anyone who filed an insurance claim, sought medical care, or simply wondered why their eyes burned that afternoon had no accessible documentation from the company for nearly three years. That is a specific, concrete dignitary harm. The right to know is not an abstraction. It is the foundation upon which people make decisions about where to live, whether to go outside, and whether to trust the factory down the road.

Pasco is a city in Franklin County, Washington. Franklin County is one of the most economically and demographically vulnerable counties in the state. The people most likely to live near industrial food processing facilities, most likely to work inside them, and least likely to have the time and legal resources to hold those facilities accountable are the people who had the least protection here. The emergency notification systems mandated by EPCRA and CERCLA exist precisely because market forces alone do not protect low-income and minority communities from industrial chemical exposure. When a company violates those notification requirements and faces a penalty that amounts to a fraction of a fraction of its annual operating costs, the message to every other industrial operator in every other working-class neighborhood is clear: the fine is manageable. The accountability is optional. The people can wait.

Oregon Potato Company has “corrected the violations,” according to its own certification in the Consent Agreement signed by President Keith Tiegs. The violations corrected were the failure to file notices. The underlying question of what those missing notices cost the community in terms of health, safety, autonomy, and trust is nowhere in the document. The EPA’s settlement closes the regulatory docket. It does not close the human ledger. The people of Pasco are not a line item in a consent agreement. They are the reason the law existed in the first place, and this case is the story of what happens when the law’s minimum penalties function as a cost of doing business rather than a genuine deterrent.

Straight From the Government’s Own Documents

These are verbatim passages from EPA Consent Agreement and Final Order, Docket No. EPCRA-10-2025-0077, filed May 16, 2025. Nothing has been paraphrased. Read it in their words.

“On August 31, 2022, a release occurred from the Facility that resulted in approximately 305-350 pounds of ammonia emitted to the air over a 24-hour period.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.18 (Count 1); repeated verbatim in Paragraphs 3.25, 3.32, 3.39, and 3.46

“Ammonia is an ‘extremely hazardous substance’ listed in Appendices A and B of 40 C.F.R. Part 355 with a reportable quantity of 100 pounds over any continuous 24-hour period and is, therefore, an Extremely Hazardous Substance under 40 C.F.R. § 370.66.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.10

“Respondent had knowledge that the release surpassed the reportable quantity for ammonia on August 31, 2022, no later than 13:04 PT/16:04 ET.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.21 (Count 1); repeated in Paragraphs 3.28, 3.35, and 3.49

“Respondent reported the release to the NRC on August 31, 2022, at 15:33 PT/18:33 ET.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.23

“By failing to immediately notify the NRC as soon as Respondent knew or should have known that the release was of an amount equal to or greater than the reportable quantity, Respondent violated Section 103(a) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. § 9603(a), and 40 C.F.R. § 302.6.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.24

“Respondent did not immediately notify the SERC of the release.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.30

“Respondent did not immediately notify the LEPC of the release.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.37

“Respondent failed to timely provide a written follow-up emergency notice to the SERC. Respondent submitted the notice to the SERC on April 18, 2025.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.44

“Respondent failed to timely provide a written follow-up emergency notice to the LEPC. Respondent submitted the notice to the LEPC on April 18, 2025.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.51

“Under Section 325 of EPCRA, 42 U.S.C. § 11045, Section 109 of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. § 9609, and 40 C.F.R. Part 19, EPA may assess a civil penalty of not more than $69,733 per violation.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 3.53

“After considering these factors, EPA has determined and Respondent agrees that an appropriate penalty to settle this action is $65,000 (the ‘Assessed Penalty’), $13,000 of which reflects violations of CERCLA, and $52,000 of which reflects violations of EPCRA.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 4.3

“Respondent neither admits nor denies the specific factual allegations contained in this Consent Agreement.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 4.2

“The Assessed Penalty and any additional costs incurred under Paragraph 4.8, represents an administrative civil penalty assessed by EPA and shall not be deductible for purposes of federal taxes.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 4.9

“The undersigned representative of Respondent also certifies that, as of the date of Respondent’s signature of this Consent Agreement, Respondent has corrected the violation(s) alleged in Part III.” Consent Agreement, Paragraph 4.12

“Nothing in this Final Order shall affect the right of EPA or the United States to pursue appropriate injunctive or other equitable relief or criminal sanctions for any violations of law. This Final Order does not waive, extinguish, or otherwise affect Respondent’s obligations to comply with all applicable provisions of EPCRA and CERCLA and regulations promulgated or permits issued thereunder.” Final Order, Paragraph 1.3

The Three Damage Columns the Settlement Ignores

Environmental Degradation

Between 305 and 350 pounds of ammonia were discharged directly into the atmosphere above Pasco, Washington on August 31, 2022. Ammonia in the ambient environment is a reactive nitrogen compound. At the local level, atmospheric ammonia contributes to particulate matter formation when it reacts with sulfuric and nitric acids in the air, generating fine particles (PM2.5) that are themselves a regulated air pollutant associated with respiratory and cardiovascular disease. The emissions from this single incident were not a trace amount: they exceeded the legally defined danger threshold by a factor of more than three.

The legal framework triggered by this release, CERCLA and EPCRA, exists in part because industrial chemical releases contaminate the shared environment that surrounds a facility. Air, unlike the inside of a factory, belongs to everyone within range of it. The communities downwind of 302 North Venture Road had no input into the decision to release this chemical into their shared atmosphere. They had no advance notice because the company failed to provide any. The absence of immediate emergency notification, as documented across Counts 1 through 3 of the Consent Agreement, means no environmental monitoring was activated in response. No air quality measurements were taken in the neighborhood in the immediate aftermath under emergency protocols. The environmental record of what those 305 to 350 pounds did after leaving the facility is, as a result, incomplete.

The structure of the EPCRA notification system is designed specifically to create that environmental record. Emergency responders, when properly notified, can take measurements, document exposure levels, and generate data that informs future risk assessments and facility permit conditions. By failing to notify the LEPC and SERC, Oregon Potato Company did not just endanger residents. It actively prevented the creation of the environmental documentation that would allow regulators, health researchers, and the community itself to understand what happened to the air above Pasco that afternoon.

Public Health

The federal reportable quantity for ammonia is 100 pounds in a 24-hour period. That threshold exists because regulatory agencies and public health scientists determined that 100 pounds of atmospheric ammonia release is the level at which emergency response becomes necessary to protect human health. FreezePack released at minimum 305 pounds, and potentially as much as 350. The source document records the release as a range, suggesting that the precise quantity is itself uncertain, which raises its own questions about the facility’s capacity to monitor and measure what it is releasing into the community’s air.

Ammonia at toxic concentrations is a respiratory hazard. Short-term exposure causes eye, nose, and throat irritation. Higher concentrations cause coughing, choking, and airway inflammation. People with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular conditions, or compromised immune systems are at amplified risk. The people most likely to be outside and unable to shelter quickly, including outdoor workers, children at play, and elderly residents, faced exposure without any official alert or instruction. The 149-minute delay in notifying even the National Response Center meant that the window for issuing a public health protective action, shelter-in-place orders, or evacuation advisories was foreclosed before any authority capable of issuing such orders was even informed.

The failure to submit written follow-up emergency notices for nearly two and a half years has a specific public health consequence that extends beyond the day of the incident. Follow-up notices under EPCRA Section 304(c) are the mechanism by which health departments and emergency planners receive information about known or anticipated health effects resulting from a release. They are the bridge between an industrial incident and a community’s ability to monitor the health of its residents in the aftermath. By withholding that information from the Washington State Department of Ecology and Franklin County Emergency Management until April 2025, Oregon Potato Company denied those agencies the ability to conduct health surveillance, public outreach, or any proactive response for more than two years. Any health effects that developed in that window went unconnected to a documented cause.

Economic Inequality

Pasco, Washington sits in the Tri-Cities area of Franklin County. Franklin County has consistently ranked among the lower-income counties in Washington State, with a significant percentage of its population employed in agricultural processing, food manufacturing, and related industries. The workforce in facilities like FreezePack is disproportionately composed of Latinx workers and other working-class residents who have limited access to legal recourse, limited mobility to relocate away from industrial neighbors, and limited political power to demand accountability from the companies that employ and surround them. EPCRA’s community right-to-know framework was designed with exactly this dynamic in mind. The law recognizes that low-income and minority communities bear a disproportionate burden of industrial pollution and that formal information disclosure requirements are a floor of protection for people who cannot afford to hire environmental lawyers.

The penalty structure in this case illustrates the core economic calculus at work. The EPA documented five separate counts of federal violations. The maximum allowable penalty under EPCRA and CERCLA is $69,733 per violation, as stated in Paragraph 3.53 of the Consent Agreement. Five violations at maximum would yield a penalty of $348,665. The actual penalty assessed was $65,000, roughly 18.6% of the theoretical maximum. For an industrial food processing company, $65,000 is an operating expense. It is a rounding error in a capital budget. It is not a deterrent. It is not a consequence that recalibrates corporate risk calculation. It is a closing fee on a regulatory docket.

The economic inequality embedded in this outcome is structural. The people of Pasco are not parties to this settlement. They have no representation in the consent agreement. The EPA acts on behalf of the public interest in theory, but in practice the settlement was negotiated between federal regulators and corporate counsel, with the community’s role reduced to beneficiary of a procedural closure. The $65,000 goes to the U.S. Treasury, payable to “Treasurer, United States of America,” per the payment instructions in Paragraph 4.5. Zero dollars go to community health monitoring. Zero dollars go to air quality testing around the facility. Zero dollars go to the residents who breathed that air. The economic architecture of environmental enforcement, in which penalties flow upward to the federal government rather than outward to affected communities, is itself a form of inequality that this case puts in sharp relief.

The Penalty Math: What They Could Have Paid vs. What They Paid

What $65,000 Buys, and What It Does Not

Who Signed This, Who Is Watching, and What You Can Do

What You Can Do Right Now

The $65,000 penalty is final. The docket is closed. But accountability does not end with an EPA settlement. Here is where grassroots pressure still matters.

• Contact Franklin County Emergency Management and ask what community health monitoring, if any, was conducted in the Pasco neighborhood surrounding 302 North Venture Road after August 31, 2022. Ask what they intend to do now that the written follow-up notice has finally been received.
• File a public records request with the Washington State Department of Ecology under the Washington Public Records Act for any inspection reports, compliance history, or correspondence related to Oregon Potato Company / FreezePack and this release.
• Connect with local mutual aid networks in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. Workers at food processing facilities often know more about what happens inside those buildings than any regulatory agency. Community-level information sharing is its own form of accountability infrastructure.
• Support environmental justice organizations working specifically in agricultural and food processing corridors in the Pacific Northwest. The vulnerability that made Pasco a low-accountability target is not unique to this case.
• Use EPA’s ECHO database (echo.epa.gov) to look up Oregon Potato Company’s full compliance history and any other enforcement actions in the region. Docket EPCRA-10-2025-0077 is the public record of this case.
• Tell this story. Regulatory enforcement depends on public pressure. When communities know what happened in their own neighborhoods, the cost of silence goes up for every company operating nearby.