VANCOUVER, Wash. — An environmental lawsuit alleges a Washington fruit and vegetable processor has violated the Clean Water Act by failing to prevent polluted stormwater from entering the Columbia River.

The Columbia Riverkeeper nonprofit has filed a federal complaint claiming the Neil Jones Food Co.’s facility in Vancouver, Washington, has breached its Clean Water Act permit conditions.

The processor, which also does business as the Northwest Packing Co., makes canned fruit, fruit juices, tomato sauces and other products from West Coast crops.

Between 2017 and mid-2023, stormwater from the facility has repeatedly exceeded the permit’s benchmarks for copper, zinc, nitrates and turbidity, the complaint said.

According to the plaintiff, the company has failed to conduct required discharge monitoring and hasn’t developed a stormwater management plan that adequately ensures stormwater quality.

It’s currently premature for Neil Jones Co. to comment on the lawsuit but the company will make a statement when the matter is resolved, said Karla Brand, its chief human resources officer.

“We are in the process of working through this,” said Brand, who noted that the allegations pertain to stormwater and not the water used for processing.

The lawsuit also claims the company didn’t take the proper corrective actions when pollutant levels exceeded the permit’s benchmarks.

The plaintiff alleges the violations are “ongoing” or “likely to recur” because the company hasn’t implemented “best management practices” that would prevent excessive pollutant levels.

“Discharges from defendants’ facility contribute to the ecological impacts that result from the polluted condition of these waters and to Riverkeeper’s and its members’ injuries resulting therefrom,” the lawsuit said.

The violations were “avoidable” and a “significant penalty should be imposed” against the company, which has “benefited economically” by avoiding improvements at the facility, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit has asked a federal court to order the facility stop violating its permit conditions, to implement an adequate stormwater plan, to remediate environmental harms and to pay civil penalties.

The company should also be ordered to provide Columbia Riverkeeper with relevant Clean Water Act documents that it submits to federal and state regulators, and to pay the nonprofit’s litigation expenses, the lawsuit said.