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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2013)
ACTIVIST LERT • Sen. Jeff Merkley will be the speaker at a special free meeting of the City Club of Eugene at noon Friday, Aug. 9, at the UO Law School, Room 110 on campus. The event is co-sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center, Oregon College Democrats and the League of Women Voters. The deadline for ordering lunch has passed. Metered parking is available on Agate Street and 15th Avenue. See cityclubofeugene.org. POLLUTION UPDATE Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) sent a warning letter to Jeanne M. Burris of Springfield on July 29 for illegally operating a waste tire storage site at property owned by Burris at 29882 Kelso St. in Eugene. DEQ’s warning letter indicates that while more than 17 tons of tires from the site have already been disposed of at Delta Sand and Gravel, additional tires remain on the property and also that improper storage and accumulation of tires can be a fire hazard and attract mosquitoes, rats and mice. Comments to DEQ regarding the erosion and sediment control plan for Serenity Lane’s Coburg Campus are due by 5 pm Aug. 16. Visit goo.gl/Yp4iAK for information on how to make arrangements to view the plan and comment. Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project LANE COUNTY AREA SPRAY SCHEDULE Weyerhaeuser Co., 744-4600, plans to backpack spray 247 acres near Fish Creek in the Coast Range with Polaris AC, Polaris SP, Forestry Garlon XRT, Accord XRT II, Rodeo and/or Accord Concentrate with additives MSO and/or nonionic surfactant. See ODF, 935-2283, notification 2013-781-00649 for more information. Weyerhaeuser, 744-4600, plans to backpack spray 161 acres near the Long Tom River in the Coast Range with Polaris AC, Polaris SP, Forestry Garlon XRT, Accord XRT II, Rodeo, Accord Concentrate and/or Sulfomet Extra with additives MSO and/or nonionic surfactant. See ODF (541) 935-2283 notification 2013-781-00652 for more information. Compiled by Jan Wroncy, Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332, www.for- estlanddwellers.org LANE COUNTY RESIDENTS PARTICIPATING IN SNAP 1 5 IN 80,657 LANE COUNTY RESIDENTS NEWS Under the House version of the bill, federal laws and protections under the Northwest Forest Plan would not be used; instead the lands would be logged under the Oregon Forest Practices Act (OFPA) that allows for pesticide use and has no stream buffers for nonfi sh-bearing streams — which still produce drinking water. Protection for fi sh- bearing streams would be cut in half. Clean drinking water is a logging issue in Oregon, The protection for streams has actually increased since where so many of our watersheds are on forest lands. In an earlier draft of the bill. DeFazio said in a July 30 press the furor over the DeFazio forest bill — or more properly release that in response to comments and recommenda- the O&C Trust, Conservation and Jobs Act — river advo- tions from Gov. Kitzhaber’s task force, “several changes cates say that the need to protect water for fi sh, wildlife and have been made to better protect Oregonians’ drinking humans gets lost as people argue over county payments, water and fi sh-bearing streams.” timber jobs and board feet. But clean water advocates say that’s not enough. John Kober of the Pacifi c Rivers Council says, “We David Moryc of American Rivers says that Eugene and haven’t seen a real brass tacks look into what does this Springfi eld residents are among mean for water, clean drinking the “1.8 million people who de- water in particular, if our lands rive their drinking water from are harvested at the level at O&C lands.” He says that 81 which [Congressman Peter] De- drinking water providers get Fazio is proposing.” their water from these forests. DeFazio and Reps. Greg Those providers face deal- Walden and Kurt Schrader’s bill, ing with water that would be which would split Oregon’s 2.4 more turbid (full of sediments), million acres of federal O&C D AV I D M O RYC , A M E R I C A N R I V E R S warmer and possibly full of forests into a conservation trust pesticides, he says. and a timber trust, has generated DEQ maps showing sensi- controversy since its inception. tive lands also show some of the logging would be on Logging the O&C lands has historically been a source of steep slopes, Moryc says, and landslides on those slopes county funding, but the lands are also the source of drink- would affect water quality and increase costs for down- ing water and a haven for wildlife. The bill passed out of stream users. the House Natural Resources Committee July 31. It is part Add turbidity from road building and the fact the pri- of a larger piece of forest legislation offered by Resources vate lands logging “has virtually no protections for clean Chairman Doc Hastings, but is under a separate title. water,” and Kober says the O&C bill would add to the Chandra LeGue of Oregon Wild calls the Hastings bill harm done to Oregon water, rather than benefi t it the way “the worst environmental bill we’ve seen in a generation.” federal forests should. She adds, “Peter didn’t like the Hastings bill, but that didn’t Sen. Ron Wyden is expected to introduce a Senate stop him from voting for it.” version of the bill “at the end of the summer,” his spokes- LeGue shares Kober’s concerns about the lack of pro- person Tom Towslee says, which according to Towslee is tection for streams under the proposal, which calls for us- around Sept. 21. He says, “Of course people are always ing weaker state rather than federal environmental laws on concerned about clean water and fi sh buffer zones,” and the federal lands. “It’s still public land but federal laws not adds that the bill is still in process. — Camilla Mortensen applying just seems wrong,” she says. DEFAZIO BILL BAD FOR CLEAN WATER? ‘1.8 million people derive their drinking water from O&C lands.’ 2,881 26,607 LANE COUNTY WOMEN OVER THE AGE OF 65 LANE COUNTY FEMALE HEAD OF HOUSEHOLDS 15,888 7,845 LANE COUNTY SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN LANE COUNTY CHILDREN UNDER 5 STATEWIDE RESIDENTS PARTICIPATING IN SNAP BY COUNTY Data Source: Oregon Department of Human Services/Integrated Client Services. Compiled by Joe Kosewic 8 A ugust 8, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com THOUSANDS ON FOOD STAMPS FACE CUTBACKS More than 20 percent of Lane County residents are on food stamps — that’s 80,657 people in a county with a population of about 350,000 who need federal assis- tance to eat and to feed their children. Local mapper and retired government employee Joe Kosewic has been mapping food stamps and other social issues to graphically draw attention to the challenges faced by the poor and the homeless. Federal funding for food stamps, aka SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition As- sistance Program), is reportedly facing a proposed $40 billion cut by Republicans in September. The Center on Budget and Pol- icy Priorities (CBPP) says this means four million people would be cut from SNAP. The think tank calls this proposal “stun- ningly harsh.” Lane County has almost 16,000 school-age children participating in SNAP and 2,800 elderly women, according to Kosewic’s maps. His data comes from the Oregon Department of Human Services. The SNAP program was already inad- equate before cuts were proposed. Kosewic says that the USDA’s current “thrifty” food plan doesn’t take into account the gender inequality when it comes to pay that women continue to face in their retirement years, since Social Security is based on earnings and the less earnings you have, the fewer benefi ts you receive. Even without the proposed $40 billion slashing by Republicans, SNAP has been up against cuts. In July, the House split SNAP from the rest of the Farm Bill where it has historically been legislated, creating an im- passe with the Senate version of the bill. And CBPP says the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s temporary boost to SNAP benefi ts is scheduled to end on Nov. 1, resulting in a benefi t cut for every SNAP household. CBPP says this means SNAP benefi ts will average less than $1.40 per per- son per meal in 2014. According to Forbes, food stamp use is at a record high, and one in seven Americans is getting a little over $133 a month to help pay for groceries. Kosewic hopes seeing the numbers and facts on maps will give people a bet- ter understanding of how widespread the need for food assistance that even work- ing people have — while more than 80,000 people in Lane County are on food stamps, Kosewic’s information from the Oregon Department of Employment says only about 45,000 people are on unemployment. — Camilla Mortensen
