{"id":572453,"date":"2026-04-08T20:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/572453\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T20:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T20:21:10","slug":"portland-scrapyard-operator-in-hot-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/572453\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Scrapyard Operator in Hot Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oregon Department of Justice asked a Multnomah County circuit judge this week to hold a contempt hearing for Moyata Anotta, owner of a North Portland metal scrapyard who the state says has flouted its environmental regulations for years. <\/p>\n

Anotta was repeatedly cited for operating his business, NW Metals, without the proper permits. In 2018, a fire at the scrapyard\u2019s former location in the Cully neighborhood temporarily displaced 145 people (\u201cHot Rods,\u201d WW, July 4, 2018<\/a>). <\/p>\n

The state alleges Anotta is running a metal shredder without a permit, storing solid waste where it\u2019s not allowed, and illegally discharging stormwater. For those violations, the Department of Environmental Quality fined him $357,000 last fall, a penalty Anotta is fighting. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe people living near his operation deserve clean air, clean water, and a neighbor who follows the rules,\u201d Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement, \u201cand we are going to use every tool available to make sure that happens.\u201d <\/p>\n

Anotta said in a statement to WW he disputes the allegations: \u201cNW Metals has made good-faith efforts to understand and comply with DEQ\u2019s requirements, including repeatedly seeking clarification of the applicable permitting pathway, which remains unclear and disputed. We intend to present the full record to the court and are confident it will show this is not a case of willful noncompliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willamette Week\u2019s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office.<\/p>\n

Support WW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oregon Department of Justice asked a Multnomah County circuit judge this week to hold a contempt hearing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-572453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}