Tamarack Mill Did Years of Water Pollution for $45,000 While Admitting Nothing

For nearly four years, an Idaho lumber mill operated with systemic disregard for the environmental laws designed to protect the nation’s waterways.

From 2019 to 2023, Tamarack Mill, LLC, a sawmill and power generation plant in New Meadows, Idaho, repeatedly discharged industrial pollutants into the Weiser River, a tributary of the Snake River. An investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uncovered a cascade of failures, revealing a corporate culture of neglect and a regulatory system that settles for penalties instead of demanding accountability.

Despite how it might seem from reading this article, Tamarack’s permit wasn’t a license to pollute via discharging wastewater, but a set of legally binding conditions to prevent exactly that.

The EPA found that Tamarack Mill, LLC violated those conditions in at least 13 different ways, creating a pattern of non-compliance that exposed a critical local waterway to untreated industrial waste.

Anatomy of a Breakdown

The EPA’s findings from a May 2023 inspection paint a picture of comprehensive failure. The company’s operations violated its Clean Water Act permit through a documented pattern of neglect that spanned years.

• Unauthorized Discharges: The facility illegally discharged unauthorized “process wastewater” directly into the Weiser River.
• Widespread Contamination: The company failed to implement basic “good housekeeping” measures, allowing pollutants to be discharged from its boneyard, kiln areas, and ash loading zones. Discolored water was observed flowing through a sawdust pile with ash residue. It also failed to minimize stormwater contamination from scrap yards and refuse sites on its property.
• Spill and Leak Failures: The EPA documented a failure to properly respond to oil leaks and spills, with stained soil visible near an oil storage containment structure. The company also failed to inspect and repair above-ground fuel tanks to reduce spill risks.
• Systemic Failure of Oversight: Tamarack Mill repeatedly failed to conduct and document required safety inspections. It missed mandatory quarterly facility inspections , failed to complete monthly inspections of fueling and material handling areas , and failed to perform required quarterly visual assessments of its stormwater discharge for multiple quarters between 2020 and 2023.
• A Culture of Secrecy: The company failed to post a public sign of its permit coverage , failed to properly document employee training procedures in its pollution prevention plan , and failed to timely submit required Discharge Monitoring Reports to the EPA.

A System of Impunity

The real-world impacts of such sustained negligence are funneled into a legal process that prioritizes settlement over justice.

The Environmental Toll

The violations at Tamarack Mill ensured a steady flow of industrial contaminants into the Weiser River. The documented failures directly resulted in the release of pollutants including oil, ash residue, and other industrial wastes associated with sawmill and power generation activities. By failing to maintain scrap yards and material storage areas, the facility allowed a cocktail of unknown contaminants to wash into a river that flows into the larger Snake River system, a vital regional waterway. The objective of the Clean Water Act is “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters,” an objective directly undermined by the company’s actions.

The Erosion of Trust

The settlement allows the mechanics of pollution to remain hidden from public view. Tamarack Mill, LLC was cited for over a dozen distinct types of violations spanning nearly four years, yet the agreement allows the company to pay a fine without ever taking responsibility for the facts of the case. This outcome fosters public cynicism, suggesting that environmental regulations are merely optional guidelines for corporations, with penalties treated as a simple cost of doing business rather than a punishment for wrongdoing.

A Price Tag on Pollution

The official response to years of environmental violations was a Consent Agreement filed on September 24, 2025. Tamarack Mill, LLC was ordered to pay a civil penalty of $45,000.

Critically, the settlement includes a clause that is central to the system of corporate impunity: “Respondent neither admits nor denies the specific factual allegations contained in this Consent Agreement”.

For a penalty of $45,000, the company makes the EPA’s findings of fact disappear into legal ambiguity. It never has to admit it discharged process wastewater, failed to clean up oil spills, or neglected dozens of mandatory inspections. The modern day system that allowed the pollution to occur remains unchanged, and the penalty, when spread over years of non-compliance, becomes a negligible operational expense.

This case is a textbook example of a regulatory apparatus that documents failure with precision but stops short of demanding true accountability, ensuring the cycle of pollution and settlement continues.

This specific consent agreement from 2025 can be found on the EPA’s website: https://yosemite.epa.gov/OA/RHC/EPAAdmin.nsf/Filings/BE2751720DF43CAA85258D10006F63B8/$File/CAFO%20Tamarack%20Mill%20LLC%20CWA%2010%202025%200159.pdf

However the reason why I specified the 2025 link was above is because 10 years ago, this exact same evil corporation in New Meadows, Idaho named Tamarack Mill had another consent agreement with the EPA for completely different pollutions: https://yosemite.epa.gov/OA/RHC/EPAAdmin.nsf/Filings/75B56FA2A6C7945085257F1C0021479F/$File/CWA-10-2016-0031%20CAFO_OCR.pdf