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