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Judge fines Rogue River polluter $6,000 By Chris Bristol Harrison Vann wasn�t able to convince a judge that draining a septic tank into the river wasn�t all that bad. "I�ve never done anything in my life with criminal intent," Vann argued Thursday, moments before a Jackson County judge fined him $6,000 for felony water pollution. "The goal wasn�t to get rid of the wastewater. The goal was to fix the pump." "Somehow this whole process has really gotten away from what actually transpired," he added. What actually transpired is that Vann, then the owner of the Circle W RV Park in Rogue River, ran a hose from his backed-up septic tank one day and, using a rented pump, discharged its reeking contents � estimated at 750 gallons � into the river. A jury last month convicted Vann of two counts of water pollution, and in court Thursday he was sentenced (in addition to the fine) to 18 months of unsupervised probation and 80 hours of community service. Trial judge Ray White told the 61-year-old defendant his conduct was "not good judgment," even if the sewage was quickly diluted in the river. "Even though it wasn�t probably extremely dangerous to anyone, unless they happened to be right below where this was occurring, it certainly is offensive to the senses, to our idea of trying to keep the environment clean," White said. Vann�s attitude yesterday mirrored his attitude in trial, when his defense challenged the state to prove the discharge from the septic tank was sewage. A half-dozen witnesses, most of them Vann�s tenants, made it clear the smell was all the proof the government needed. The jury reached a verdict in less than an hour. At sentencing, defense attorney Larry Parker asked the judge to reduce the felony conviction to a misdemeanor after Vann completes probation, on the grounds that what happened was a "minor situation" because the sewage would have quickly dissipated. The judge refused. At the time of the March 1999 incident, the river was running at about 10,000 gallons a second. The septic tank contained liquid effluent, such as urine and dish water; a second septic tank, which was not pumped out, contained biosolids. "Even assuming it was 750 gallons of urine, the harm doesn�t seem to be there," Parker argued. He said Vann has since sold the RV park. But prosecutor Karen Loomis countered the no-harm, no-foul argument, partly on the grounds that state regulators considered the incident serious. Discharging anything into the state�s waterways requires a permit. A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Quality testified his agency would have recommended a fine of $9,200 if the matter had been treated as a civil violation. Loomis also argued that dumping septic waste into the river violated contemporary notions of common sense. Jail time was not a serious option, given Vann�s previously clean record. "Who would want to get in the river?" Loomis asked. "If we let everybody do what Mr. Vann did, it would be nothing but sludge." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA