COURTESY PHOTO: INTEL CORP. - Intel Corp.'s Oregon microchip plant.

Chipmaker Intel Corp. was hit last month with a $30,816 fine for operating a fabrication unit in Hillsboro for two months without a working air scrubber.

The Pamplin Media Group first reported in February that the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality alleged Intel had left one of its acid gas scrubbers at the D1X facility in Hillsboro on a “hold” status from July 7 to Sept. 9, 2022. Because the scrubber was inoperative, caustic gases were released as air pollution.

The DEQ says Intel’s own data showed the scrubber wasn’t operating properly for weeks, but the company — Oregon’s largest for-profit private employer — failed to notify regulators until late September, nearly three months after the scrubber stopped working.

“Only the deviations on September 8 and 9, 2022, were reported within 15 days of the deviations occurring,” the DEQ states in its notice and order.

The DEQ notified Intel of the penalty on July 11 before listing it in a Wednesday, Aug. 23, press summary.

Intel manufactures computer chips at the D1X plant in Hillsboro, part of its massive Ronler Acres campus.

The company said in a statement in February that it was “cooperating fully with (DEQ) to rectify the matter.”