The Millrace: a complex cleanup job
BY BOB JAMES
Of The Emerald
It is not likely that any student graduating from the
university these days will carry with him fond memories
of swimming in the Millrace. It is more likely that he
will remember the Millrace as a polluted, nearly
stagnant eyesore.
Early in this century, the Millrace was a fast
moving stream complete with over-hanging trees, frogs
on lily pads, and scores of swimmers. According to Bob
Tweedell in his book, Millrace History, the stream was
once a center around which much of the social life of the
University revolved. On a typical spring day it would be
packed with swimmers and canoeists, Tweedell said.
By contrast, the Millrace in more recent years has,
on occasion, been condemned by public health officials
as unsafe for swimming, and it may hold little attraction
for most students. But the millrace may not be lost — at
least a local environmentalist, Walter Wentz, believes
there is still hope.
[ Analysis
Wentz, who is chairer of the Committee for Millrace
Development, reports that a step recently has been
taken to restore the stream. That step, a verbal
agreement between Northwest Christian College (NCC)
and the City of Eugene to be signed at a later date, will
grant public easement on a stretch of the Millrace owned
by NCC. Such an easement will permit the city to make
improvements to increase the the flow of the stream.
Wentz emphasized that the CMD would continue to
collect easements for the remaining property through
which the Millrace flows.
Several years ago the Eugene City Council resolved
in a memo that the city would make necessary im
provements to the Millrace if such easements were
obtained.
City Manager Hugh McKinley reaffirmed the city’s
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interest in the matter Tuesday, but added, “It will have
to go back to the council,” since a different council exists
today than when the past resolution was agreed upon.
Evidence that the Millrace greatly needs cleaning
up was pointed out by Wentz as he guided two Emerald
staff members along the Millrace Monday. His tour
started by Franklin Boulevard, across from the
University, where the Millrace widens into a duck pond.
Wentz commented that it is unfortunate the rest of the
stream is not as attractive and well landscaped as this
area. But then, “the rest is not visible from the road,”
he said.
As soon as one gets away from the road, trash is
everywhere. Tin cans, bottles, old tires and other
garbage lined the banks. Trees and branches off trees
have fallen into the water, even though a number of
snags had already been cleaned out by Wentz’s group, he
said.
A little farther upstream there were pipes at four
different locations spewing waste into the water.
At the Coca-Cola Bottling Co., a pipe was pouring a
whitish liquid, a few bottle cap6, and bits of peper labels
into the stream. A deposit of the little bits of paper,
fanning about 15 feet into the stream, had formed.
Across the Millrace from this pipe was another,
larger pipe. The pipe was a city storm sewer pipe, and
steam was rising from whatever poured out of the pipe.
Wentz speculated that someone had tapped their own
line into the city’s and was dumping illegal waste into
the race, via that sewer line.
Another 50 yards upstream, waste was pouring into
the Millrace from the Flagstone Motel while it was in the
act of draining the washing machines in its laundromat.
After the tour wascompleted, the Emerald contacted
various private and public officials, in an effort to
discover why the situation existed. At the bottom of the
pollution problem, from the interview results, is the fact
that there exists no central sewer system to serve the
area, and, as a result, the Millrace is used as a sewer.
The solution, however, is not as simple as installing
a sewer — sewers are expensive, and private and public
firms reluctant to foot the costs.
For example, Jack Foster, president of the Emerald
Bottling and Canning Co., which bottles Coca-Cola,
agrees that the Millrace is “one of the most polluted
bodies of water in the county” and he regrets adding to
it.
But, he said Tuesday, he feels it is the city’s
obligation to provide his company with a sewer. “Every
area in a city ought to be served by sewers, ” he says.
He is supported by Vem Adkinson of the Lane
Regional Pollution Authority. Adkinson, who has
studied the situation, said Tuesday that Foster “has
done everything that he can to get action initiated...he
doesn’t want to be a polluter any more than anyone
else..”
On the other side of the coin, however, city officials
feel there is not great enough demand to justify building
a sewer to serve the residences and firms.
Don Allen, director of public works, said Tuesday
there is “no sanitary system planned for over there.”
He said he feels it is up to Foster to build his own line to
join the sewer system on Franklin Blvd.
The cost for such a line, by Foster’s estimation,
would be $35,000, which he said he feels is out of the
question. Foster also pointed out the sewer system for
Franklin Boulevard is already at its full capacity.
Of course there are other factors involved in
eliminating the pollution of the Millrace, but persons
contacted generally agreed the central issue is that of
sanitary sewers. Until sewers are installed, most
agreed, polluters have little alternative but to continue
to pollute.
The problem can be alleviated, somewhat, as
pointed out by Wentz and others, if the flow of the stream
is increased.
But that, too, will be no simple feat. According to
Harold Babcock, director of the University’s Physical
Plant, it can not be accomplished “without the expensive
procedure of adding pumps” or an equally expensive
dam. In addition, the intake area, located on the
Willamette River, would have to be enlarged and im
proved to accomodate the greater flow of water, he said.
Babcock asserted it will be “a very complicated
solution when it cranes—or else it would have been done
before.”
VIETNAMESE
CULTURAL NIGHT
THURSDAY, FEB. 8- 7:30
EMU BALLROOM
Si.00
COME CELEBRATE THE VICTORY
OF THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE
THE UNION OF VIETNAMESE IN THE U S. ARE TRYING TO BRIDGE THE
GAP OF COMMUNICATION AND TO ENHANCE THE SOLIDARITY BET
WEEN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE
THEY INVITE US ALL TO COME AND GET A GLIMPSE OF THEIR 4,000
YEAR OLD CULTURE, AS TOLD THROUGH THEIR SONGS, MUSIC, POEMS
AND PLAYS. COME AND JOIN US v/cmo
They will also be performing Saf„ Feb. 10 at the Unitarian Church, 8:00
CAMPUS RADICAL UNION AND NUC
Finally - A j
Concert/Kegger! j
STARRING THE ORIGINAL \
KINGSMEN
\ REVIVING THEIR HITS LIKE
“Louie, Louie” and “Money”
\ \
\ SATURDAY. FEB. 10th
j Salem Armory Auditorium \
! |
5Your Favorite Beverages will be Served!
! You Must Be 21 j
TICKETS JUST $3.00 J
| AT THE DOOR |
‘Charlie’ in Pocket Playhouse
I Fairly good? Better than that \
I BY JIM HUNTER
Of The Emerald
Any time you get PhD and Masters
candidates in theater appearing in the same
play you assume it will come off pretty well.
When you consider there are only three
actors in the cast you figure it better be damn
good.
“Charlie,” presented Tuesday night in
the Pocket Playhouse, would have fallen in
that latter category if not for a couple of
irking aspects. In any event, “Charlie” is a
good, thought-provoking play that holds your
interest.
•* David Pellman, the doctoral candidate,
and Martin Treat, the masters candidate,
both gave complete if different per
formances.
Pellman played the grandfather who with
his grandson, played by Lance Cooley, came
to see an occulist, Treat, for glasses. The
[ Review
reason for the glasses. So Grandpa can
shoot. Shoot? Shoot what? Why, Charlie, of
course.
In this Slawomir Mrozek .play the
audience is posed the question of whether it is
better to resist those urges and impulses
which while not the best things to do are
satisfying.oris it better to give in, rationalize
and do them and to hell with it all.
Treat does a fine job in conveying his
changing attitude about the shooting of
Charlie. He moves from feelings of
disbelief, to disgust, to acceptance and
finally to encouragement.
Pellman is convincing as a tottering old
codger. At several points in the play
Pellman, shotgun in hand, noses around,
under chairs and over couches, while Treat
and Cooley are debating the merit of shooting
Charlie. And Pellman, not the dialogue, holds
the audience’s attention.
Director William Gary got an exceptional •:
performance out of Cooley, in only his second j;
role..
It was the little touches that made the x
play move and, consequently, interesting.
Approximately halfway through the 45
minute play you come to the realization that
grandpa and grandson are not just eccentric
but maniacal. It came when the two accused
Treat of being Charlie. They’re rational?
Obviously, because Treat had objected to
grandpa’s shooting at anything but targets or
birds, so he has to be Charlie. The “touch”
involved was Treat in a chair with the shotgun
under his chin while the only lighting em
ployed was one spotlight located above the
chair. Shining on Treat’s upturned face it
gave the impression of a grilling in a Grade-B
detective flic.
Treat’s metamorphosis from disbeliever
to one who accepts the whole thing coming
down on him is another instance. In his at
tempt to catch a fly buzzing around the room,
Treat has his hand on grandpa’s gun. Instead s
of ripping it from his “patient’s” hands he S
nabs and crushes the fly. 3
The two unsettling aspects of “Charlie” i
elicited two very different reactions. Toward |
the end of the play the telephone rang. Fine, 1
unfortunately it was off the hook — something $
always good for a laugh.
The first miscue crept up on the audience. $
Scheduled to start at 8 p.m. no action took 3
place until 8:05. The first five minutes had -i
Treat laying, reading, on a couch waiting for |
whatever patient or patients might drop by. |
A minute or two of observing Treat £•
engrossed in his book is dandy, but after four j:j
minutes the audience was restless and the |i
pre-play chatter started again. Luckily \
Pellman and Cooley arrived in the nick of
time.
Despite being a 45-minute play that \
should run only 40 minutes it is an en
tertaining visual lesson on whether one should
or not, as the expression goes, do it if it feels
good. The second and last dose of to do or not 1
to do your own thing takes place at 8 p.m. in i
the Pocket Playhouse.