Clearwater Creek happens to be a federally designated Coho and steelhead salmon spawning tributary.
I walked down to the creek bank, took out my phone, and photographed the sediment sliding into the water. I timestamped every photo. That evening, I filed a water quality complaint with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
By Friday afternoon, a federal biologist had strung yellow warning tape across Corrine’s construction site. By Monday, her contractor was hit with a stop-work order and a preliminary environmental enforcement action carrying fines of $40,000 per day.
Corrine panicked. Her husband Sterling called in a favor with a county commissioner. They petitioned the Oregon Department of Transportation to declare my private road a “de facto public road,” hoping the state would just seize it.
My attorney, Delilah, laughed when she saw the filing. “Cole, they just formally admitted in writing that the road isn’t public. They signed their own death warrant.”
