Martin Nygaard, who founded Warrenton Fiber Co., describes some of its operation at the Tansy Point location in Warrenton they have leased since 1986. The company is one of the largest employers in Clatsop County with more than 140 employees.

Nygaard Land LLC, owned by a prominent timber-harvesting family, violated the federal Clean Water Act by filling about 60 acres of wetlands south of the Astoria Regional Airport last year without a permit, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The company leveled and filled the wetlands for pasture while the nearby Lewis and Clark Bridge was closed for repairs.

Nygaard Land is in negotiations with the EPA to restore the wetlands and pay a fine for the violation.

“We’re hoping for restoration of the site, at least enough restoration to get it back on track to what it used to be,” said Yvonne Vallette, a wetlands coordinator for the EPA in Portland.

Nygaard Land said it is cooperating with the federal agency. “This property has been a farm for almost 100 years and we are cooperating fully with EPA to resolve the matter,” the company said an emailed statement Thursday night.

The work occurred on property Nygaard Land owns between Airport Lane and U.S. Highway 101 while the bridge was closed for partial replacement. Vallette said the company had an application with the state Department of Forestry to log the land, which it did in 2014 and last year.

“The (Oregon) Forest Practices Act allows logging to occur on wetlands as long as nothing else happens to the land,” said Julie Curtis, a spokeswoman with the Department of State Lands. “If the use of the land changes … then that would trigger needing a permit from us.”

But, in addition to logging, the company also leveled and filled wetlands to create pastures on the land, part of a former dairy farm. The Department of State Lands met with Warrenton Fiber Co. at the site in August, reminded the company about the need for a permit and filed a complaint, which was joined by another from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in September.

Curtis said the company’s work included digging up 3,500 feet of a creek running through the property and dumping the fill on other wetlands.

The state and Corps turned the investigation over to the EPA based on multiple past violations by the Nygaard family’s companies, including wetland fills near their stockyard in Hammond in 2009 and a property in Seaside in 2007.

“Our goal with the Clean Water Act is to ensure no net loss of wetlands,” Vallette said, adding Nygaard Land would have had to get a permit and mitigate the impact at another site.

She said the Nygaards have been cooperative in trying to fix the issue, and that the agency hopes to have the land restored to wetlands this year.