In addition to a host of other legal challenges, Dr. Robert Pamplin Jr. now faces a demand from the Oregon Department of State Lands to pay $13.9 million for his neglect of one of Oregon’s iconic rivers.
The state notified Pamplin of that hefty tab in an 18-page letter on Feb. 19. It described a failure to make progress on the terms of 2023 agreement Pamplin signed to mitigate damage from decades of mining the bottom of the Willamette River in the center of Portland.
“The Department has determined that you are out of compliance,” said the Feb. 19 letter from DSL director Kaitlin Lovell obtained by OJP. “The enclosed proposed/final Order serves as notice that the Department plans to assess a civil penalty and require corrective action.”…