EAST WENATCHEE — The state’s Department of Ecology issued a violations notice and order to developer Calvin White for not taking care of blowing dust problems at two East Wenatchee subdivisions he has been in the process of developing since 2006.

The notice of violations and order, dated Sept. 23, indicates White could face a $10,000 civil penalty each day for each violation if he does not take corrective action.

White has 30 days to appeal the corrective order the DOE issued along with the violations notice; but in the past two weeks, he has been busy at Aspen Hills and Calalina Crest subdivisions north of East Wenatchee. He put in a road, leveled a mountainous pile of dirt and hydroseeded the two properties with an erosion-control seed mix.

Susan Billings, DOE’s section manager for the Central Regional Air Quality Section out of Yakima, said the department has received steady complaints from neighbors of the two subdivision sites.

The notice said neighbors provided detailed reports about ongoing impacts to their health and welfare, damage to their property and inability to enjoy their residences indoors or outside.

Dave Hulligan, whose duplex was situated next to a nearly 60-foot-high pile of soil on White’s land until White leveled it Thursday, said, “It’s almost like living in a sandstorm.”

He said if his garage door is open for even a few minutes, the fine particulate fills up his tool cases.

“My mom, who is staying with me, has asthma, and at times it is impossible for her to breathe,” Hulligan said.

Another neighbor, Rita Sortino, said her swimming pool was unusable for a couple months because of all the blowing dust. She said she had to purchase special equipment to clean the pool.

“And when I turn on my clothes dryer, you can just hear the sand in there,” she said, adding one of her dogs “had allergy fits” from being exposed to all the dust.

Bob Corkrum, another neighbor who made three trips to Yakima to deliver photos and dust samples to DOE, said the dust is so bad at times that no one can sit outside and enjoy their decks or have people over for barbecues. He said he’s had to go to the doctor several times because of problems with his lungs and he hasn’t been able to hire anyone to paint his house because of the constant layer of dust coating his house.

Corkrum said White occasionally watered the land to keep the dust at bay.

“But it’s 11 acres,” he said. “Maybe he shouldn’t have leveled it all at once. Then it would still have some natural vegetation on it to keep the dust down.”

Corkrum said for the past three years, White has done virtually nothing with the property except “push plenty of dirt around. He’s been like a kid with a Tonka toy.”

The World caught up with White on Friday at the Aspen Hills subdivision and asked if the spate of recent activity has anything to do with the violation notices.

He said that he was mostly just finishing up the project so that he could start selling lots, but the notices may have factored in somewhat.

When asked why he didn’t address the dust problem years ago when neighbors first started complaining, he said he wouldn’t comment because of the pending issue with DOE.

Corkrum said he is very upset with the county and the DOE. “Why did it take three years for these notices to go out? We are taxpayers and they are supposed to be protecting citizens,” he said.

Douglas County does not have an air-quality authority, said Planning Director Mark Kulaas, which is why neighbors had to take their case to the state.

He said that when the county was first contacted by the neighbors about the problem, they notified DOE right away. “We also contacted Calvin (White) and advised him that he needed to get water down. I understand he also did some seeding, but because it wasn’t hydroseeded, it didn’t take,” Kulaas said.

“It’s not that we weren’t doing anything,” he said. “And it’s not that we weren’t unsympathetic; but we didn’t have the authority to do anything.”

Kulaas said the county was just as frustrated as the neighbors at the DOE’s slow pace addressing the complaints.

Billings said dust control is an area where the DOE took big budget cuts.

“But we did get involved because it’s an extreme case,” she said, adding that she worked closely with White to try and help him comply and educate him about techniques he could emply to try and keep the dust down.

Kulaas said he definitely understands budget cuts, “But when the problem appears so severe and generates as many complaints as this has, then something should be done, no matter how bad the budget constraints.”

Billings said she is encouraged by White’s recent activity at the two subdivisions, but added that the department is still deciding whether penalties should be implemented.

Michele Mihalovich: 665-1188

mihalovich@wenatcheeworld.com