Sky’s bleached look not from laundry
The brilliant blue that made
Eugene’s summer sky famous is
fading, it’s taking on a bleached
out look similar to old Levis that
have been through the wringer
and hung out to dry once too
often.
But unlike the pair of well-worn
jeans, the sky isn’t supposed to
sport a washed-out look. Ac
cording to nature’s plan, the sky
needn’t worry about basking in
the sun so long that its brilliant
blue hue might fade.
Nature’s plan, however, didn’t
account for man's tinkerings.
Man has teamed to bum his
fields to rid them of pests. He has
learned to build factories that
send their wastes spewing into
the atmosphere. He has learned
lots of tricks for bleaching out the
sky.
One of his favorites is called
“the motor vehicle.”
In this trick, man pumps a few
gallons of gasoline into the
vehicle’s tank, floors its .gas
pedal and away he gees. The
clincher comes when figuring out
the ratio between the amount of
energy (in the form of gasoline)
he pumps into the machine and
the amount of work it offers In
return. Estimates place the ef
ficiency ratio somewhere around
25 per cent. For every unit of
energy man puts into the motor
vehicle, he receives a quarter of a
unit of work in return. The dif
ference between those two
numbers winds up, in pert, in the
sky as polluting agents with
fantastic “bleaching” powers.
The effect is one glurpy, hazy
sky.
By 1976, according to the state
Department of Motor Vehicles,
Lane County residents had ac
cumulated 204,335 motor
vehicles, all operating at the low
25 per cent efficiency level.
What’s more, vehicle traffic In the
Eugene-Springfield area amounts
to more than one billion miles per
year, according to the Lane
Regional Air Pollution Agency
(LRAPA).
These figures worry quite a few
residents in the area who kind of
enjoyed the brilliant blue of
yesterday’s skies. The figures
become even more fretful when
one considers the explosive
effect they have when combined
with the area's geographic factor.
If the Eugene-Springfleld area
were located in the vast stretches
of eastern Oregon flatlands,
chances are air pollution wouldn’t
plague the area as it actually does
here in the Willamette Valley. But
the fact is, the Willamette Valley
is surrounded with such dose
lipped mountain ranges that it
has an air pollution potential as
great as Los Angeles, the state
Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) reports.
The Willamette Valley has
“restricted ventilation,” ac
cording to meteorologists. This
means the Coast and Cascade
mountain ranges bordering the
valley act as barriers to wind
movement and impair any
consequent dispersal of
pollutants.
Summer winds blowing from
the north tend to push all air
pollutants in the valley to the
southern end. When temperature
inversion puts a “lid” of heat on
the valley, pollutants are trapped
and tend to multiply each day
until the inversion factor
disappears with cooler weather.
With such a natural factor so
agreeable to air pollution,
Willamette Valley residents have
to be doubly consdous of the
smoggy threat.
Air pollution is broken down
into three categories by the Lane
Regional Air Pollution Agency
(LRAPA): suspended par
ticulates, carbon monoxide and
photochemical oxidants.
LRAPA spokesman Marty
Douglas says suspended par
ticulates (mainly dust and smoke)
pose the greatest threat to the
county, due mainly to field
burning and industries. Motor
vehicles, he adds, cor.ti’ibute
almost 30 per cent when con
sidering the vehicles’ actual
emissions as well as the dust
stirred up by them on the road.
Lane County’s carbon
monoxide level is usually fairly
low, Douglas says, although
motor vehicles contribute 78 per
cent.
Photochemical oxidants are
the product of sunlight and
unseen gaseous pollutants such
as hydrocarbons and nitrogen
oxides. Motor vehicles contribute
57 per cent of the county’s
hydrocarbons and 32 per cent of
its nitrogen oxides, Douglas
says.
The Eugene-Springfield area’s
first air pollution alert for
photochemical oxidants came
during the summer of 1974, when
the amount of these pollutants
climbed above the alert level for
nine days.
The alert level, as established
by the DEQ, is 200 micrograms of
pollutants per cubic meter.
During the 1974 alert, photo
chemical oxidants reached 245
micrograms. The area's second
alert for photochemical oxidants
came on Aug. 16, 1977, and
stayed for less than 24 hours with
a high of 229 micrograms of the
pollutants per cubic meter.
With the facts of Eugene
Springfieid air pollution In mind,
the Lane Council of Governments
transportation committee and
several subcommittees com
posed the Eugene-Springfleld
Area 2000-Transportation Plan,
released early this month.
The plan contains several
alternative methods of tran
sportation proposals, Including
an extensive rapid transit bus
system which would provide
express bus service between
Eugene and Springfield; en
couragement for car pools and
discouragement for downtown
parking; and general en
couragement for bicyclists and
pedestrians by improving the
area’s bike paths and sidewalks.
Pedestrians may need tanks,
bodyguards to survive traffic
With 5,000 motor vehicles and
umpteen blycles barreling
through the intersection each
day, 13th and University is a sore
spot for campus planners
scratching their heads over the
campus traffic situation.
The campus planning depart
ment surveyed the intersection in
May, 1976, and is just now for
mulating the results of that survey.
The campus planning
department surveyed the in
tersection In May, 1976, and Is
just now formulating the results
of that survey. Among the
preliminary data, campus planner
David Rowe said he has deter
mined 44 per cent of the drivers
using the intersection are
students, 15 per cent are faculty
and staff members, 17 per cent
are visitors, 4 per cent are ven
dors or commercial drivers and 14
per cent are miscellaneous en
titles with no University associa
tion.
Rowe said the survey also
shows that 7 per cent were just
passing through campus with no
University business and 1.7 per
cent were lost.
“We had one driver who was
really lost,” Rowe recalls. “He
was driving a huge Winnebago
motor home with a boat hooked
on the back and a load of runny
nosed kids. Said he was looking
for his motel, the poor guy."
One proposal to ease the in
tersection’s traffic was put forth
by the Survival Center last year
and calls for extending 13th
Avenue's blocked off area to
include the intersection, thereby
clearing motor vehicles out of it.
The proposal hasn’t gone far,
however, because It dose not
account for emergency vehicle
access nor commercial deliveries
to the EMU and the University
Press in Allen Hall, Rowe says.
Another proposal swirling
about campus for Improved
University traffic Is opening the
Autzen stadium parking lot for
commuters who could park there
and walk or bike to campus via
the footbridge. The idea has been
around for several years, Rowe
says, but has never been
developed.
To accommodate the
University’s growing bicycle
population (Rowe estimates
3,000 bicycles roam the campus),
the University may up the number
of bicycle racks. Rowe says 1,500
more racks are needed and with
passage of House Bill 3149 by the
1977 Legislature, the University
can now funnel revenues
generated from motor vehicle
perking and violation fees into
better bicycle facilities on
campus.
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