Eugene weekly., April 21, 2005, Page 12, Image 12

LRAPA will be inundated with dealing with
odor issues and side-lined from doing it’s [sic]
real work — which is to focus on keeping our
airshed clean and healthy.” Banks included
Baxter representatives among the e-mail recip-
ients and reiterated her position at the February
board meeting.
Community member Becky Riley, who
lives downwind of the Baxter plant, is dis-
turbed by Banks’ comments. “What kind of
incentive is this for the company to make a
good faith effort to complete the work to the
highest standard and to make sure it is effec-
tive?” she wrote in an e-mail to Jim Johnson. “I
think the agency needs to send a new message
to Baxter, loud and clear … that further
enforcement actions WILL be taken at the end
of the term if the odor conditions continue.”
County Commissioner and former LRAPA
board member Pete Sorenson suspects that
industry is influencing the board in Baxter’s
favor. “The board refused to listen to the com-
plaints of the local population,” he says. “They
chose not to enforce the ordinance against
Baxter because of political pressure.”
Skewed Board
LRAPA’s April 12 board meeting is packed
to capacity. Chair Dave Ralston presides, sport-
ing all-black clothes, a sandy mustache and
combed-over hair, while a dozen-odd audience
members sit at attention. Former board member
Pat Patterson, sitting behind me, coughs: a
deep, loud, phlegmy hack from the depths of
his body cavity, the kind that rattles the ribs and
brings tears to the eyes. A cough that reminds
me why LRAPA exists.
The LRAPA board is the agency’s boss,
establishing policies and overseeing the staff
work. It currently has seven members: three from
Eugene, one from Springfield, one from Lane
County, one from Cottage Grove/Oakridge and
one at-large. The board plans to add two new
members, one from Eugene and one from
Springfield, in accordance with the state statute.
Eugene City Councilor Betty Taylor has
served on the board for eight years. She says
that with board changes come shifts in policy
that favor either industry or public health.
Before last November, she says, the board was
relatively balanced: Commissioner Pete
Sorenson and former Eugene City Councilor
12 APRIL 21, 2005
Shannon McCarthy shared Taylor’s public
should be willing to enforce air quality laws,
health bias, and Springfield City Councilor
including the nuisance rule. Ralston rolls his
Ralston, Cottage Grove representative
eyes. Nobody seconds the motion.
Patterson and at-large appointee Carol
Tannenbaum favored industry. Eugene’s Gary
Rayor was a swing vote.
A tough choice
But Sorenson didn’t seek re-appointment
Would Lane County’s air be cleaner if it
this year. “The community shouldn’t be lulled
were regulated by the ODEQ? It’s hard to say;
into believing that LRAPA exists to serve and
it never has been. During LRAPA’s tenure, the
protect the public,” he says. “You really don’t
local airshed has improved in some regards but
have much public accountability with LRAPA.
declined in others. The levels of sooty particu-
It’s hanging right now by a thread. I’m not opti-
lates from wood burning have declined dramat-
mistic, and so I left.”
ically since the ’70s, but Lane’s emissions
County Commissioner Faye Stewart
remain among the worst in the state — and the
replaced Sorenson, Eugene representative Earl
nation — in terms of several major pollutants:
Koenig replaced McCarthy, and Oakridge rep-
carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, fine particu-
resentative Glenn Fortune replaced Patterson.
late matter and volatile organic compounds. In
Based on their voting records so far, all
2001, Lane County’s adult asthma rate
three new appointees seem sym-
was 9.9 percent, compared with 8.5
pathetic toward industry.
percent statewide.
That leaves Taylor as
Oregon Toxics Alliance
the board’s lone voice
President David Monks
for public health. At the
says that the local air reg-
past several meetings,
ulation model might be
she’s often been on the
best for Lane County
losing end of 6-1
because it holds the
votes, and her motions
agency accountable to
are seldom seconded.
the public. “There’s
She worries that the cur-
always a value in having a
rent board will push for a
locally staffed and run air pol-
new director who will put
lution authority,” he says. “Staff
industry above the public health.
members are accessible; neighbors
Kim Metzler
“I’m not optimistic about who
can serve on the advisory committee.
we’re going to hire,” she says.
Despite the way the board has gone, I’m not
Community member Leslie Maguire echoes
ready to give up on LRAPA.”
her concern. Speaking at the April board meet-
On the other hand, a regional authority may
ing, she cites language in the agency’s hiring
be more susceptible to local politicking than a
criteria that says LRAPA seeks a new director
state authority. “We are a local agency, and
who “takes enforcement action using a cooper-
there are always political pressures,” Metzler
ative and conciliatory approach” and “is sensi-
says. “Anybody who says ‘No, that doesn’t
tive to economic impacts of air quality
happen,’ I think they’re a little naïve.”
improvement on area businesses and able to
While the DEQ lacks localized air pollution
develop mutually beneficial solutions.”
programs like the Lane Clean Diesel Project
and Everybody Wins, LRAPA lacks the funds
Maguire tells the board that she is losing faith
to carry out some of DEQ’s more expensive
in the agency. “How sad that rather than LRAPA
projects. “We probably do not do as much air
protecting the public, it is now the public that
toxics monitoring as DEQ does,” Metzler says.
must protect itself against what you have become
That deficiency could work out nicely for local
— a voice for industry,” she says.
industries whose emissions aren’t backed up by
Taylor motions to add two more points to the
enough monitoring data to readily draw health
hiring criteria. First, she says, the new director
conclusions, à la Baxter.
should be committed to the agency’s mission to
In order to steer the agency back toward its
protect the public health. The motion passes.
priorities, Monks says that the agency needs to
Second, Taylor continues, the new director
be more transparent, the public more aware and
local nonprofits more involved in air quality
politics.
Theoretically, the public could have as much
leverage with LRAPA as industry, applying
political pressure to shape it up or shut it down.
But that doesn’t seem to be happening. “I don’t
think we’re getting any pressure [from public
health advocates] recently,” Metzler says.
A more perennial reform might come from
a revision of the state statute concerning
regional air agencies. Some examples may be
found California and Washington, both with
extensive networks of local air agencies.
California has 35 regional air pollution
authorities, all overseen by the California Air
Resources Board, an arm of the California
EPA. Like LRAPA, they receive permit fees
from local industries, but they also get a cut of
vehicle license registration fees — enough to
ensure a solid funding base in perpetuity.
Washington state has seven regional air pollu-
tion authorities covering 91 percent of the state’s
population, all overseen by the state’s Department
of Ecology. The Spokane County Air Pollution
Control Authority (SCAPCA), like LRAPA, cov-
ers 8 percent of the state’s population and regu-
lates an airshed prone to temperature inversions.
But unlike LRAPA, SCAPCA receives 8 percent
of its annual budget from Washington’s general
fund, a figure based on the county’s population,
size and per capita income. In addition, SCAPCA
levies mandatory fees on local jurisdictions based
on their populations. Those fees cover 32 percent
of SCAPCA’s budget. With 10 sources of rev-
enue, the agency’s funding is fairly secure. “As a
rule of thumb, I would say the more diversified
the revenue sources, the easier it is to maintain a
relatively stable budget from year to year,” says
SCAPCA Director Eric Skelton.
There’s safety in numbers. Local air agencies
in California and Washington are more stable
because secure, annual funding sources strength-
en them against political pressures, and they are
backed up by statutes designed to sustain them.
In contrast, LRAPA seems immeasurably
weak, trying to appease everyone and satisfy-
ing no one, nervously changing directions as its
board shifts. Like the haze that hangs over the
Willamette Valley, the agency responds to pres-
sure. What direction it will take next depends
on local governments, on industry, and on Lane
County taxpayers.
ew