COQUILLE — The Coos County Board of Commissioners approved and signed an agreement last Wednesday resolving claims of Clean Water Act violations against the county stemming from the 2003 construction of the natural gas pipeline from Coos Bay to Roseburg. In September 2003, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had filed suit against both the county and MasTec Inc., the Miami-based firm hired to build the pipeline.

A memorandum of understanding addressing the pipeline was signed by the county and the Corps in September 2004, but it has taken until now for the county to see a final agreement, Chairman John Griffith said. The county is the first to give its stamp of approval to the agreement. The U.S. Department of Justice has yet to sign, Commissioner Nikki Whitty added.

The agreement calls for payment of a $75,000 fine and restoration of sections of rivers and streams affected by pipeline construction.

Much of the restoration work has already been done, Griffith said. The 2004 agreement stated the county would spend $525,000 on restoration and fish passage improvements.

“There isn’t very much (left),” Whitty said. “There might be seven or eight spots where we think the work is done, and the Corps isn’t sure.”

What remains is payment of the civil penalty. The county will transfer funds to the United States Department of Justice account in three $25,000 payments, the first of which will be paid within 30 days of signing the agreement. The remaining two will be paid on June 30, 2009; and June, 30, 2010.

Whitty said she is happy with the agreement, given the county could have been on the hook for a much larger amount.

Griffith was not of the same opinion. He said he voted against the memorandum of understanding in 2004 because the penalty was too severe.

“I thought it was excessive, because we hadn’t done anything wrong,” he said, adding that each time the Corps and the county sat down to negotiate, the requirements of the county were reduced. “We had them coming our way.”

This agreement doesn’t spell the end of lawsuits for the county, which still has to settle differences with MasTec, Griffith said.

In 2004, MasTec and the county exchanged lawsuits. MasTec drew first blood in February, in a $9.8 million suit, citing the county’s failure to pay for work. In April of that year, the county terminated its contract with the company and, in May counter-sued for $10 million, citing breach of contract. That lawsuit was later upgraded to $14 million.

Both lawsuits are now being addressed in settlement negotiations, Whitty said.

The county awarded the $23.3 million contract in June 2003 with completion expected by Dec. 31, 2003. A series of lawsuits against both MasTec and the county filled the following months. In October 2003, four county residents sued MasTec for $500,000, claiming damage to water pumps and creeks during underground drilling. Later that year, the Sierra Club, filed a $4.3 million suit against Coos County and MasTec, claiming environmental damage.

Along with the memorandum of understanding between the county and the Corps, claims brought by the Sierra Club, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Project and the Coos County Coalition were settled in September 2004. The first lawsuit was settled in August 2004.

The county hired Oregon-based firm Rockford Corp. to finish the project in the summer of 2004. The finished pipeline started delivering to Coos Bay residents and businesses in January 2005.

So far, the pipeline has cost around $53 million, which is about $10 million more than the projected cost at the beginning of the project, Whitty said. She added the final cost will depend on the outcome of negotiations with MasTec.