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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2014)
ACTIVIST LERT NEWS • Verizon Wireless is planning to construct a 90-foot cell tower in the vicinity of 888 W. 2nd Ave. in Eugene. Public comments regarding potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days to Trileaf Corp, 19442 E. Warner Rd., Suite 220, Mesa, AZ 85212, or call (480) 850- 0575 or email p.rees@trileaf.com. The site is just north of the railroad tracks. • This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, and on Saturday, July 26 and Aug. 9, Cascadia Wildlands will be leading public hikes into the proposed Devil’s Staircase Wilderness. These excursions are demanding, all day and mostly off-trail, with a limit of 12 people per hike. Leader is Cameron Derbyshire. Call 517-4906 or visit cascwild. org. POLLUTION UPDATE Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) followed up on the pre- enforcement notice it sent to Hollingsworth & Vose Fiber Company (H&V) in May for hazardous waste law violations at its Corvallis facility (see EW 5/22, goo.gl/yde2bm) with a $10,400 civil penalty on July 16. The most serious of H&V’s multiple violations concerned failure to clean up releases of crushed brick dust containing barium, cadmium and chromium. Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project LANE COUNTY AREA SPRAY SCHEDULE Freres Timber Inc., (503) 859-2121, plans to hire Alkin Forest Management LLC, 503- 510-9477, to spray 3.7 miles of roadsides in Benton County near Williams Creek and Coleman Creek with Forestry Garlon XRT, LV6, Opensight, Rodeo and/or MSO. See ODF notification 2014-551-00305, call Bill Mahr at 929-3266 with questions. Compiled by Jan Wroncy and Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332, forestlanddwellers.org. lighten up BY RAFAEL ALDAVE Guys who make and discuss a list of people they don’t like — calling it “a bowl of dicks” — are wasting their time in campus police work. They should be on talk radio. Meanwhile, the three Republican county commissioners must be feeling pretty frisky as they try to extend their authority over Eugene to block legislation they don’t like. Think of Putin without the tanks. EUGENE PHOTOGRAPHER JOHN BAUGUESS CAPTURED THIS IMAGE OF AN OSPREY NEST NEAR THE FIRE THAT DESTROYED THE SPRINGFIELD PLYWOOD AND VENEER MILL JULY 17. BAUGESS SAYS THE FIRE “THREATENED NOT ONLY MILLWORKERS BUT ALSO AN OSPREY NEST NEAR THE FIRE. THE OSPREY APPEARED TO HAVE BEEN DISTURBED AMID THE SOUND OF A HELICOPTER AND LEFT THE HUMAN-MADE NEST PLATFORM ATOP A UTILITY POLE, THEN DISAPPEARED INTO THE BLACK SMOKE.” HE SAYS THE BIRD THEN REAPPEARED WITH A FISH GRIPPED IN ITS TALONS, “PERHAPS FOR ITS YOUNG.” GRAVEL MINING LAWS OVERDUE FOR UPDATES All around Oregon exist areas of land that were zoned for mining back in the 1970s. These mines are sometimes nearly unused or lie dormant for a decade. Homeowners who thought they bought country property in an agricultural area wake up to discover a gravel mine as their loud, new next-door neighbor, and there is often little they can do to stop it or reduce the effects of truck traffic, noise and dust. State Sen. Floyd Prozanski says current mining laws are out of date in Oregon and need to be modernized. Vaughn Balzer, reclamation specialist for DOGAMI (Or- egon’s Department of Geology and Mineral Industries), says in cases like Lost Creek Rock Products’ Parvin Butte in Dexter and the Northwest Mineral Resources mine in Saginaw, opportuni- ties for public input are reduced because the land already has the land-use approval. Mining in Parvin and Saginaw has caused fear and anger for the homeowners nearby who are subject to anything from blasting to the smells of asphalt production. Balzer says only a small portion of the 900 or so mines DO- GAMI handles around the state are controversial. He says DO- GAMI is proceeding “slowly and deliberately to make sure we get everything right” as it examines the mining permits. Cur- rently Balzer says the Saginaw mine is in a “holding pattern” and the agency is “still considering input on the permitting pro- cess.” Meanwhile Parvin Butte neighbors learned recently that the permit for mining at Parvin, which has been under the aegis of developer Greg Demers and the McDougal Bros., is being transferred to another company, Aggregate Resource Crushing. Balzer says permit transfer, as well as an application to reduce setbacks, is under consideration at DOGAMI. Wellness Centered Dentistry Safe Removal of Mercury Fillings The Saginaw mine is in Prozanski’s district, and he says he at- tended a May 6 meeting with Lane County and residents living near the mine where “stuff came out that was somewhat disturbing to me on how the processes work.” He says, “DOGAMI has ju- risdiction that’s limited to what they can actually do under current law.” DOGAMI’s jurisdiction centers on natural resource and envi- ronmental concerns, but issues that trouble the neighbors, such as the numbers of trucks on the rural roads, fall under county. The Saginaw mine lies close to a Head Start school, and Parvin lies in the middle of a small rural community. Prozanski says he and Rep. Phil Barnhart introduced several bills in the 2013 legislative session aimed at improving mining practices and increasing public input but none made it out of com- mittee. With input from DOGAMI and others, he will introduce new legislation in the next session aimed at taking into account the way land use has changed since the zoning was done in the ’70s. Prozanski says that under current law, if a mining operation is out of compliance with the state and then comes into compliance, “my understanding is that DOGAMI can’t take that into consider- ation when new applications are made for that site.” As a prosecu- tor, he finds that unbelievable and adds, “We use criminal history in determining appropriate sanctions for that person, but a com- pany that has been in violation of state law on multiple occasions, if they come into compliance, those past acts aren’t considered in granting the permit.” The state senator says the next goal is to reconvene a time for DOGAMI, the county and constituents to have a round- table discussion “and start looking at what is it we can do so that the most affected can have a part in these discussions.” — Camilla Mortensen Tim Verkler Full Service Real Estate Broker Since 1997 Experience Matters ÒFrom Vintage Homes to New Construction From Condos to Country EstatesÓ Former Home Builder | UO Alumnus Rob Whicker DDS • www.wcdentistry.com 4725 Village Plaza Loop, Ste 101 • 541-868-2008 8 July 24, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com Cell - 541-554-0910 timverkler@gmail.com eugeneproperties.net
