OREGON TO
KILL WOLVES
The Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife sent out a press release Friday
evening announcing its intent to kill two
more of Oregon’s wolves, including the
Imnaha pack’s GPS collared alpha male.
Conservationists say the timing of the press
release prevented the news about the planned
killing from getting out before wolf advocates
could voice objections.
According to ODFW, “Data from the
alpha male’s GPS collar confirm he was at
the scene where the calf was killed earlier
this week.” That same data will allow ODFW
to find and kill the wolf quickly, says Rob
Klavins of Oregon Wild. “We’re pretty
troubled about the whole idea,” he says.
Klavins says, “I’m fan of The West Wing
and they called it the Friday trash,” and says
that’s when government agencies release
news if they don’t want people to know
about it.
The owner of the spring calf that ODFW
was killed and eaten is Todd Nash, “an
outspoken anti-wolf activist,” Klavins says.
Nash, president of the Wallowa County
Stockgrowers, is one of the ranchers that
have been issued a permit to kill wolves
caught in the act of attacking livestock.
“The state of Oregon appears to be
implementing a wolf kill plan, not a wolf
recovery plan. Its mandate is to recover
wolves in our great state, not to cave to the
demands of the powerful livestock industry, ”
says Josh Laughlin of Eugene-based
Cascadia Wildlands. The group signed on to
a letter with Oregon Wild, the Center for
Biological Diversity and others, asking that
the wolf kill order be suspended.
On Tuesday, Sept. 27, activists with the
Animal Defense League locked themselves to
the doors of the ODFW offices, blocking the
entrances to protest the killing of the wolves.
Oregon’s wolves are protected under the
state Endangered Species Act and are
managed by a wolf plan that allows wolves
to be killed if they chronically attack
livestock. Recent state legislation
compensates ranchers for any livestock
killed by wolves and provides incentives for
use of nonlethal deterrents for wolves.
The ODFW press release says,
“Landowners in this area have been using
numerous nonlethal measures to avoid wolf-
livestock problems,” however Nash was
apparently not using controls like flagging
and electric fencing. He had a range rider
checking the cattle.
Four of Oregon’s wolves have been killed
for attacking livestock, one died while being
collared and another was killed by poachers,
Klavins says. If the alpha male and another
younger male are killed, the formerly
16-member pack will be reduced to two
wolves, the alpha female and a pup, and will
no longer have a breeding pair. Two other
packs in Oregon still remain; one of them,
the Walla Walla pack, had puppies. If the
pups survive through December, that pack
will be considered to have a breeding pair.
Klavins says the public hunting seasons
in other states like Montana and Idaho could
hurt Oregon’s wolf population as well.
“Wolves don’t recognize political boundaries
and state lines and what happens in
neighboring states affects what happens in
Oregon,” he says. Eugene-based Predator
Defense has called for a boycott on travel to
those states in protest of the wolf hunts. —
Camilla Mortensen
SENECA FAILS
AIR TEST
Seneca Sustainable Energy’s biomass
burning cogeneration plant has been
controversial since it was first proposed.
Social justice advocates such as Oregon
Toxics Alliance have worried about the
effects of increased air pollution in an area of
Eugene already hit by toxics. Conservation
groups have protested Seneca’s logging
practices. Now Seneca has been fined
$9,856 by Lane Regional Air Protection
Agency for failing a portion of its pollution
control test.
The plant burns wood from logging in
order to generate steam and electricity.
Eugene Water and Electric Board buys
energy from the plant. According to LRAPA
documents, stack testing at the plant, required
under its LRAPA-issued permit, showed that
when
the
selective
non-
The Wenaha pack’s
alpha male
8 SEPTEMBER 29, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
catalytic reduction (SNCR) equipment is
running to control nitrogen oxide emissions
(NOX) the amount of particulate matter
released is outside the permit limits. The
issue first arose in testing in April. The
increase in particulate matter does not occur
when the SCNR is not running.
When inhaled, particulate matter can
affect the heart and lungs and cause serious
health problems, according to the
Environmental Protection Agency.
“They cannot guarantee that the level of
air toxics coming from Seneca are safe.
That’s why they are called pollutants,” says
Lisa Arkin of OTA.
SCNR technology is shown to reduce
nitrogen oxides from 20 to 60 percent. The
more expensive selective catalytic reduction
method that Seneca chose not to use could
have reduced the smog-causing nitrogen
oxides by 75 to 90 percent, according to data
from the EPA. Smog is also damaging to the
lungs. OTA criticized Seneca’s choice of
SCNR technology during the permitting
process.
According to Oregon Toxics Alliance,
neighborhoods in the west Eugene industrial
corridor where the Seneca plant is burning its
logging waste have higher percentages of
Latino, disabled and poverty-level residents
than other Eugene neighborhoods. Arkin
says the group, in conjunction with Centro
LatinoAmericano, has just received two
grants, one from the EPA, the other from
Providence Health, to assist the residents of
two nearby neighborhoods that have high
rates of asthma among their children.
“Isn’t that backwards that little OTA is
trying to help the people and bring nurses in
while LRAPA and Seneca are saying it’s OK
to pollute our airshed?” she asks.
LRAPA is requiring Seneca to submit a
testing plan for approval by Sept. 28,
complete the testing by Oct. 12 and provide
LRAPA with a written report documenting
the test results 45 days after the testing is
completed. If Seneca is indeed violating
emissions limits, it has three months to come
up with a plan to fix the problem. The agency
says emissions during this time period “are
not expected to cause or contribute to any
violations of the ambient air quality standards
in the Eugene/Springfield area.”
If Seneca’s nitrogen oxides emissions
exceed its annual permit limit, it faces
additional fines from $3,800 to $15,200,
according to LRAPA’s stipulation and final
order document.
According to LRAPA, “When enforcing
environmental laws and regulations, LRAPA
has the authority to incorporate a SEP
(Supplemental Environmental Protocol) into
the settlement agreement that is separate
from and in addition to correction of the
violation.” SEPs under the Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality have
been used to fund projects that improve the
environment by nonprofit groups like OTA.
Seneca’s biomass plant and its logging
mill that generates the waste it burns have
separate permits for criteria air pollutants
like nitrogen oxides and particulate matter,
but operate under one permit from LRAPA
for hazardous air pollutants, an issue that
OTA has called into question. If the facilities
were considered the same source for
particulate matter, it which would put Seneca
over the 15 ton increase in fine particulate
matter that would trigger a new source
review from the EPA and significantly
stricter standards. — Camilla Mortensen
MEETINGS
LAW MAY
GET REFINED
Former Lane County Commissioner Bill
Fleenor was named in a timber industry-
funded lawsuit against three commissioners
last year, but he was the one commissioner
exonerated in Judge Michael Gillespie’s
ruling. Now Fleenor wants to see Gillespie’s
ruling made moot by updating Oregon’s
Open Meetings Law and clarifying
ambiguities. But such a bill might not see
legislative light until 2013.
Fleenor has talked to Shannon Sivell,
legislative policy counsel for Oregon
Attorney General John Kroger, and has talked
to State Rep. Phil Barnhart about sponsoring
legislation to tweak the law.
“In his ruling, Gillespie created law from
the bench,” wrote Fleenor in an email to
Sivell. “He established that four
commissioners engaged in what he termed a
‘serial deliberation’ which is not defined or
addressed in the current law.” Gillespie found
that Commissioner Faye Stewart and former
commissioner Bill Dwyer also met
inappropriatly but the Seneca-Jones Timber
funded lawsuit did not name them.
Fleenor also wrote that Gillespie “touched
upon the use of email, and the possibility that
a thread of email correspondence between
three or more elected officials could be
considered a violation of the Open Meetings
Law. His interpretations have created serious
ramifications and cast serious reservations
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM