4A
|
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2020
|
APPEAL TRIBUNE
Oregon DEQ loosens ash, debris cleanup rules
Michelle Maxwell
Register-Guard
USA TODAY NETWORK
As residents begin cleanup of their
properties after the Holiday Farm Fire,
one roadblock some hit was being un-
able to find a place to dump the ash and
debris, which is considered potentially
hazardous.
Typically, if someone tries to take the
debris or ash from a burnt property to a
dump, they will be turned away. State
regulations around handling of asbe-
stos and storing waste debris limit how
and where hazardous waste can be han-
dled.
The help speed up wildfire cleanup,
the state's Environmental Quality Com-
mission on Friday relaxed some require-
ments for handling of ash and debris
that may contain asbestos and autho-
rized temporary debris storage before
its permanent disposal in landfills.
DEQ loosened its rule regarding as-
bestos for people who decide to hire a li-
censed asbestos abatement contractor
to clean their properties, including:
h Fees and notification requirements
are suspended; commercial and larger
residential projects requiring demoli-
tion must still submit a notification;
h Open accumulation of asbestos de-
bris is allowed;
h No requirement for negative-pres-
sure enclosure of the debris;
h Use of mechanical equipment is al-
lowed.
The changes also allow residential
property owners with four or fewer
dwelling units to do the work them-
selves if they meet certain conditions
including not using paid labor and wet-
ting down material to prevent airborne
particles. The packaging, transport and
disposal rules remain the same.
Additionally, to deal with the large
volume of wildfire debris, the state will
suspend rules to allow waste staging
areas to be set up quickly to store and
manage the debris for proper disposal.
DEQ will issue letters of authorization
for short-term stockpiling of wildfire
debris and waive permit fees.
Upper McKenzie Fire Chief Christiana Rainbow Plews was among the several hundred residents who lost their home in the
Holiday Farm Fire. She was at her home on Oct. 6, 2020, in Vida, Oregon to search through the debris to see if she could
find mementoes, jewelry and her grandfather's medals from serving in the Pacific in World War II. ANDY NELSON, THE
REGISTER-GUARD
Wait before starting cleanup
Officials understand that people with
properties that burned may want to be
proactive and quickly begin cleanup. To
avoid the risks from sifting through,
moving and transporting fire debris,
Oregon DEQ strongly urges people to
wait and not to undertake cleanup
themselves because of the risks posed
by asbestos and other hazardous ma-
terials.
Rather, the Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency and the state of Ore-
gon advise residents of burned proper-
ties to take advantage of a program to
have Environmental Protection Agency
crews remove household hazardous
waste from fire-affected properties at
no cost to the property owner.
The assistance, announced by FEMA
on Monday, requires property owners to
sign an access agreement, called a Right
of Entry form, by Oct. 16 to allow crews
Senators
Continued from Page 2A
there are far more Democratic voters in
the state than Republicans.
Of Oregon’s 2,924,292 registered vot-
ers, more than 1 million of them are
Democrats — 35.7%. Nonaffiliated vot-
ers are the second largest group at
32.1%, and Republicans make up 25.7%.
Moore said a greater percentage of
Republicans tend to turn out than Dem-
ocrats — which helps the GOP’s
chances. Nonaffiliated voters partici-
pate at a much lower rate than either
major party.
Democrat Shemia Fagan
Civil rights attorney Fagan joined the
House of Representatives in 2013, and
made her way to the Senate in 2019 by
defeating a long-time Democrat incum-
bent in a contested primary.
She has pushed and voted for bills
against the wishes of her party leader-
ship during her time in the Legislature,
andsaid she will bring the same inde-
pendence to auditing the state govern-
ment.
Leading the audits division, Fagan
said, she will focus on trying to improve
the function of state government as op-
posed to playing “gotcha” with agencies.
“It’s not about bashing services. It’s
about improving services,” she said. “I
am committed to making sure that pub-
lic services work best for the people who
need them most.”
Fagan has been a part of efforts to ex-
pand ballot access and said that would
continue in the secretary of state’s of-
fice. She said she will expand Oregon’s
automatic voter registration system be-
yond the Department of Motor Vehicles
to other state agencies to boost voter
participation.
She will also work to change state
rules to allow all ballots postmarked by
election day to count. Currently, ballots
only qualify if they arrive at a counting
The remains of a business Sept. 15, 2020, in Blue River, Oregon that was
destroyed in the Holiday Farm Fire. Multiple agencies are working to assist in
cleanup of debris in the aftermath of the blaze. ANDY NELSON, THE REGISTER-GUARD
to clean up hazardous waste on their
property.
This is the first step in cleanup and is
being offered at no cost to property
owners (although insurance may be
billed if applicable). This work will be
funded by FEMA and the state of Ore-
gon.
The second step is the removal of
ash, debris and burned-out structures.
State, county and federal partners are
actively working to develop options for
ash and debris removal. (This is likely,
but not yet confirmed, to be available at
no cost to property owners.)
Crews that specialize in identifying
and removing hazardous substances
will visit affected properties, determine
what hazardous materials need to be re-
moved and remove them for safe dis-
posal. Commercial or industrial proper-
ties are included in these efforts
Household hazardous waste removal
timeline (approximate):
h Property owners are asked to sign
the property access agreement by Oct.
16;
h Boots-on-the-ground teams: Oct.
20-22;
h Cleanup complete by Dec. 31.
For more information, call 458-239-
2826 or email roeforms@lanecounty-
eoc.net.
To sign a Right of Entry form, go to
lanecounty.org/mckenziefire.
There
also is a helpline, with assistance avail-
location by 8 p.m. on election day.
The state got closer to the goal of
making every mailbox a ballot box, but
“we need to complete that,” Fagan said.
She said she supports efforts to ex-
pand voter access because those are in-
herently pro-Democracy. She said the
secretary of state has a responsibility to
push back on misinformation peddled
about the elections or incidents of voter
fraud.
“I don’t believe that voting rights
should be a partisan issue,” Fagan said.
Fagan has raised more than $1.5 mil-
lion for her campaign this year and
spent $1.36 million, according to the lat-
est available campaign finance data.
Her largest contributors include unions
and national progressive organizations,
including Emily’s List.
As of Oct. 9, she had about $230,000
in her campaign account.
Thatcher also said the state needs to
conduct studies into why voters don’t
participate in the electoral process and
figure out ways to encourage them to
vote. She said strides have been made in
Oregon to increase the number of vot-
ers, but the rate of participation could
still improve.
While rates of voter fraud in the state
are vanishingly low, Thatcher said an
analysis of the system should be con-
ducted so voters can have confidence
their vote will matter.
On audits, Thatcher said she wants
to use the office of secretary of state to
“get Oregon back on track” after a chal-
lenging year that required government
responses to COVID-19, historic wild-
fires, ongoing protests and a recession.
An audit into the state’s response to
the coronavirus pandemic would in par-
ticular be a “target-rich environment,”
she said.
Thatcher has raised nearly $550,000
for her campaign this year and spent
about $380,000, according to the latest
available campaign finance data. She’s
received money from groups including
timber companies, the Oregon Firearms
Federation, Timber Unity and her own
businesses.
As of Oct. 9, she has about $180,000
in her campaign account.
Republican Kim Thatcher
Small business owner Thatcher said
much of her work over the past 16 years
in public office has been geared toward
accountability and transparency in gov-
ernment.
“These are issues that relate directly
to the secretary of state’s office,”
Thatcher said.
She joined the House of Representa-
tives in 2005 and served there for 10
years before winning the Senate District
13 seat in 2014. She won re-election two
years ago.
Thatcher said she would particularly
like to make public records more easily
accessible for Oregonians.
“Average Oregonians need to be able
to follow the money,” she said. “They
need to be able to find it out for them-
selves.”
In the short legislative session earlier
this year, Thatcher carried a bill that
would have improved the independence
of the public records advocate position.
The bill was among many that died after
Republicans walked out of session in
protest of a greenhouse gas emissions
cap-and-trade bill.
Progressive and pacific green
Nathalie Paravicini
As a candidate representing the Pro-
gressive and Pacific Green parties, na-
turopathic doctor Paravicini is cam-
paigning to bring more attention to the
issues she cares about.
Chief among these is ranked choice
voting, which is a system where voters
rank candidates for office by preference
instead of giving their vote to just one
candidate. This year, Benton County is
using ranked choice voting for applica-
ble elections and there is some effort to
expand the practice statewide.
“For me, winning is changing the po-
litical debate, in addition to getting to
the office,” Paravicini said. “Making
able in English and Spanish, at 1-682-
800-5737.
Other assistance available
FEMA has provided $13.4 million to
people affected by the Oregon wildfires.
To receive assistance, people must
register by visiting disasterassistance-
.gov, calling 800-621-3362 or using the
Federal Emergency Management Agen-
cy app.
Help is also available at the FEMA Ex-
ternal Outreach Center at the Lane
Events Center, 796 W. 13th Ave.; open
until until further notice, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
daily.
h If you have homeowners, flood,
automobile or mobile home insurance,
call your insurance provider to start
your claims process. You must report
the insurance settlement amount you
receive to FEMA to complete your regis-
tration.
h Save your receipts and take photos
before you begin the clean-up process.
Documentation of losses will help
FEMA process your claim.
h Disaster assistance for individuals
and business owners may include
grants for temporary housing and home
repairs, low-cost loans to cover unin-
sured property losses, and other pro-
grams.
h Low-interest disaster recovery
loans from the US Small Business Ad-
ministration are available to homeown-
ers, renters and businesses. Applicants
can reach SBA at 800-659-2955 or visit
sba.gov/services/disasterassistance.
During a disaster declaration, home-
owners and renters can be considered
for SBA loans, not just businesses.
ranked choice voting something that ev-
eryone has heard of and a dinner table
discussion, I consider that winning the
election.”
Before moving to Oregon, Paravicini
was involved in politics and community
organizing in Texas, which included
running for lieutenant governor in 2002.
She believes the Democratic party
needs to be pushed in a more progres-
sive direction, similar to how the Tea
Party moved the Republican party fur-
ther right.
According to Secretary of State rec-
ords, Paravicini does not have a political
action committee to raise or spend mon-
ey on her campaign.
Libertarian Kyle Markley
The 2020 Secretary of State race
marks the fifth time Markley has run for
public office in Oregon. The four previ-
ous attempts were to represent House
District 30, the seat currently held by
Rep. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro.
Markley did not return several at-
tempts to contact him for this story.
On his website, Markley described
the Secretary of State job as mostly ad-
ministrative and said he would strive for
independence in the role, saying Repub-
licans and Democrats could not be
trusted to act in an honest manner.
“As a Libertarian Secretary of State, I
will hold both major parties in equal dis-
dain and will simply work to improve
systems impartially and without regard
to political fallout,” he wrote.
According to Secretary of State rec-
ords, Markley does not have a political
action committee to raise or spend mon-
ey on his campaign.
Reporter Connor Radnovich covers
the Oregon Legislature and state gov-
ernment. Contact him at cradnov-
ich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-
399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at
@CDRadnovich.
Support local journalism by sub-
scribing to the Statesman Journal.