PAID SUPPLEMENT
Web of Water
The Lost Creek watershed is comprised of 270
miles of streams. Lost Creek winds its way down
Lost Valley, skirts past the steep slopes of Parvin
Butte, then meanders the final four miles before it
spills into the Middle Fork of the Willamette River.
The creek is home to several threatened species:
Spring Chinook, cutthroat trout and steelhead.
Another threatened fish, the Oregon chub, is found
in the water near the confluence of Lost Creek and
the river. People who live along Lost Creek have
also found red-legged frogs and western pond
turtles basking on half-submerged logs; both are
listed as “critical species of concern.”
According to the Oregon Watershed
Enhancement Board, over a half million dollars
have been invested in restoration projects within the
Lost Creek watershed since 1999. Fish counts
conducted by the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife have documented the success of these
projects.
The creek flows through the property of Lost
Creek Rock Products but slightly outside the permit
boundary of the quarry. The quarry owners have
been granted permission to modify the riparian zone
in order to construct a bridge across Lost Creek.
Letters written to county officials by fish and
wildlife biologists concerning the negative impact
of bridge construction and mining activity on fish
habitat have not resulted in any modification of the
permits or the mining activity.
The Mining Begins
Lost Creek Rock Products has managed to
maximize its profits by exploiting what Lane
County hearings official Gary Darnielle has called a
“poorly written” county regulation that exempts a
quarry owner from negotiating with neighbors. If a
200-foot buffer of trees is left between the quarry
and the neighbors, the code suggests that a site
review may not be required. Lost Creek Rock
Products stated on their application to DOGAMI
that they would leave a 200-foot buffer of trees to
help mitigate the effect of noise and pollution. With
this assurance, DOGAMI issued the mining permit.
Lost Creek Rock Products then used a forestry
permit to cut the trees right to the property line.
After what remained of the vegetation in this buffer
zone was scraped into piles and burned, the quarry
owners planted ten-inch seedlings in order to
remain technically in compliance with the mining
permit.
Mining produces a tremendous amount of noise.
A quarter of a stick of dynamite can generate 177
decibels. Rock crushers also produce sound levels
well over the 85 decibels level known to damage
human hearing. Ten-inch trees, of course, do not
provide an effective sound barrier. Nevertheless,
Commissioner Faye Stewart, a mining and timber
advocate who once wrote a letter in support of
awarding Lost Creek Rock Products a half million
dollars in public funds, points out that such activity
is “perfectly legal.”
Lost Creek Rock Products (ironically named for
the bucolic stream that will bear the company’s
impacts) intends to dynamite and strip mine the
butte to extract more than 60 million tons of
aggregate — crushed stone, sand and gravel. Over
the next twenty years these rock products will be
transported over county roads from Dexter, through
Eugene, to a loading facility in west Eugene. At the
end of twenty years, Parvin Butte, which rises twice
as tall as Skinner Butte, will be scraped away to a
level ten feet lower than the adjacent railroad track.
‘When we see land as a community to which we belong,
we may begin to use it with love and respect.’
- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Battling for the Butte
As the noise and environmental destruction
began to unfold without official oversight, Dexter
neighbors fought back. Rural citizens from various
walks of life — retirees, loggers, farmers, artists,
school teachers — banded together as Dexter-Lost
Valley Community Association. They hired an
attorney with money raised in bits and pieces from
bake sales and small donations to fight a multi-
million dollar corporation that had been profiting
from logging, mining and land sales for years.
When Dexter residents brought their concerns to
a wider audience, they faced the misconception that
the Parvin Butte quarry was a “not in my backyard”
issue. Some industry advocates tried to paint Dexter
residents as people who had built houses next to a
quarry, only to complain about mining noise.
However, it is important to remember that when the
land was zoned for mining in 1973, Parvin Butte
was surrounded by small family farms. These
people didn’t move in next to a property zoned for
quarry mining; the quarry moved in next to them.
Everyone in Dexter understands that our
transportation system is dependent on rock. The
trick is to identify those areas that are less
environmentally — and culturally —sensitive to
mining activity. In the case of Parvin Butte, the
quarry not only poses environmental threats to Lost
Creek, it also disrupts the lives of over 800 people
residing within a mile of the quarry. Dexter
residents are being forced to live out the
consequences of a decision made almost 40 years
ago.
Other momentous decisions loom just around the
corner. Some of the rock from Parvin Butte is
intended for use on the Coos Bay rail link,
according to an ODOT grant application filed by
Lost Creek Rock Products. Not only would Parvin
Butte be devastated, its rock would be used to
upgrade the railroad tracks to facilitate the transport
of dirty coal through the Willamette Valley, causing
widespread environmental damage far beyond the
valley’s borders.
Lost Creek Rock Products is owned by Greg
Demers and Norman and Melvin McDougal — men
who have long been in the business of using land
for profit, manipulating the system to their
advantage and passing on the costs to the public
and the environment. A judge recently ruled against
another of their ventures, Willamette Water
Company, saying that they were “speculating” on
water as they tried to gain control of 22 million
gallons of water a day from the McKenzie River to
sell to rural communities. County Commissioners
Jay Bozievich, Sid Leiken and Faye Stewart had
voted in support of the company.
Photographs by John Bauguess