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Serial polluter avoids jail time for illegal salvage yard An illegal salvage yard in White City landed Joshua Michael Smith two years' probation and restitution in a plea deal to avoid prison. [Mail Tribune file photo] Thursday Apr 6, 2017 at 2:52 PM Apr 6, 2017 at 5:23 PM Mark Freeman Mail Tribune @MTwriterFreeman A serial polluter who ran an illegal salvage yard in White City and stuck the landowner for more than $25,000 in cleanup costs avoided jail time Thursday, but he could end up in prison if he does it again. In a bow to the realities of Jackson County Jail's revolving door, a prosecutor offered Joshua Michael Smith two years' probation and restitution for a plea to a felony charge of first-degree criminal mischief, a move Smith accepted in return for dropping two felony and two misdemeanor charges of water pollution. Jackson County Assistant District Attorney Nick Geil said convictions on the environmental crimes would not land Smith, 44, in the state prison system, and he would be such a "low-priority inmate that if he went to jail today he could be out tomorrow." However, Thursday's conviction on a property crime puts him amid the group of Oregon felons who punch their own ticket to state prison should they commit a similar crime again, Geil said. "If he does this sort of thing again, we could approach it as a property crime and he could go to prison," Geil said outside of court. Even though Smith walked out of Jackson County Circuit Court a free man, he did not walk away from financial responsibility. Judge Patricia Crain ordered Smith to pay restitution for the cleanup that landowner Allen Surgeon had to incur to rid his 3.4-acre lot in White City of the 47 tons of junk and more than 1,000 waste tires that state Department of Environmental Quality investigators inventoried at Smith's illegal salvage yard there. In a 2015 Mail Tribune interview, Surgeon pegged his cleanup costs at about $25,000 at the property in the 7900 block of West 11th Street in White City. Crain also ordered restitution for cleanup on a Butte Falls Highway property where Smith resumed his salvage work while on the lam from skipping court dates on the original water-pollution charges, court records show. Geil said in court that restitution for DEQ-monitored cleanups on those properties could reach six figures, and the Jackson County District Attorney's Office has 90 days to work out the amount it will request to Crain for approval. "The community has to pick up after you, and that's not right," Crain told Smith in court. Crain also ordered Smith to comply with DEQ, whose records show Smith owes $25,514 in unpaid fines for the White City case. Outside of court, Smith said he's working odd jobs and plans to return to work "in the woods" to comply with a restitution payment schedule he said likely will be inflated. "It's been portrayed to be more than it is," said Smith, who declined further comment. The case began in February 2013 when DEQ received a complaint about an "unpermitted auto-wrecking facility" where several solid-waste violations were found, DEQ files state. In its investigation, the agency said it recorded 37 tons of metal, including dismantled vehicles, vehicle parts and home appliances. And they found about 1,035 waste tires and 255 gallons of unidentified fluids stored in various containers. DEQ officials also documented 10 tons of garbage, including broken furniture, bedding, carpet, rubber and plastics, according to a DEQ order. Also discovered were roofing materials, metal, tires and other debris in the unnamed creek that had water in it at the time. Water from that creek flows into the nearby state Denman Wildlife Area. Environmental laws forbid the disposal of solid waste anywhere except in a permitted facility, such as a landfill or transfer station. Oregon law allows the storage of up to 100 tires on residential or industrial property without a permit, provided they are properly stored and managed. While stuck with the cleanup costs, Surgeon was also initially fined $18,845, but the agency reduced it to $9,600 and put Surgeon on a payment plan, DEQ records show. State law holds landowners responsible for environmental cleanups even if the owner never tossed so much as a cigarette butt on the land. Smith was indicted in October 2015 on two counts each of first- and second-degree unlawful water pollution as well as one count of discarding refuse within 100 yards of state waters. The first-degree pollution charges are Class B felonies while the rest are misdemeanors. Those were all dismissed Thursday as part of the plea. — Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.