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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2014)
ACTIVIST LERT • “Viet Nam: An Inner View” is a live multi-media performance and book release at 7 pm Friday, Aug. 8, at Tsunami Books, 2585 Willamette. Advance tickets at $10 are available at Tsunami. Tickets day of the program are $11. The event marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, authorizing U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. Marc C. Waszkiewicz and Lea Jones co-produced the program and the book being released is 1000 Yard Stare, a book of photos taken by Waszkiewicz during his three combat tours in Vietnam. A soundtrack album, memoir and film are also part of the program. A reception for advance ticket holders ($10) will begin at 5:30 pm. Sponsored by the Returning Veterans Project, CALC and the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics. Contact Lea Jones at 554-7182 or leajones99@gmail.com. See also vietnaminnerview.com. • Rep. Phil Barnhart is holding a series of town hall meetings to talk about the issues facing Oregon and the 2015 Legislature. The next meeting, along with Sen. Terry Beyer, will be at 7 pm Saturday, Aug. 9, at Randy’s Main Street Café in Brownsville . • An education funding town hall with Oregon Chief Education Officer Nancy Golden, Rep. Phil Barnhart, Higher Education Coordinating Commission Chairman Tim Nesbitt, UO VP for Finance and Administration Jamie Moffit and Cascade Middle School teacher Peter Bauer will be at 6 pm Monday, Aug. 11, at the UO Law School, 1515 Agate St. • A Community Rights Action meeting to “learn and join our growing movement” is happening from 6:30 to 8 pm Monday, Aug. 11, at First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive St. Free. Call Ann Kneeland at 514-9720 for more information. • The ACLU of Lane County’s “Civil Conversation” series is holding a public discussion on the “Eugene Police Department’s Policy on Biased Conduct” from 5:30 to 6:45 pm Thursday, Aug. 14, at the Eugene Public Library downtown. Speakers will include Juan Carlos Valle, a former Police Commission member, and Eric Richardson, president of the NAACP of Eugene and Springfield. For more information, email lanechapter@aclu-or. org. • Coming up is a global warming and jobs town hall with Treasurer Ted Wheeler, Oregon Global Warming Commission Chair Angus Duncan and others at 6 pm Tuesday, Aug. 19, at LCC’s downtown campus, Rooms 112-114. Hosted by Rep. Phil Barnhart. NEWS SENECA AIR POLLUTION A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE Beyond Toxics has been calling attention for years to what it says are the “disproportionate environmental and human health effects” of the Seneca biomass burning plant on nearby commu- nities. Seneca Sustainable Energy is located in the West Eugene Industrial Corridor, an area with a higher-than-average number of low-income and Latino residents, according to Lisa Arkin of Be- yond Toxics. The group, represented by Crag Law Center, has filed a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act alleging dis- crimination by Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (LRAPA) in issuing a permit to Seneca to emit fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). The complaint alleges that LRAPA was required by Title VI and the Environmental Protection Agency’s implementing regulations to consider the disproportionate effects of the pollution, and LRA- PA should have conducted air quality modeling. It says LRAPA must comply with Title VI because the agency “regularly receives federal funding.” PM 2.5 penetrates deeply into the lungs, and in 2010 more than 2.1 million premature deaths and 52 million years of healthy life were estimated as lost due to ambient fine particle air pollution, according to a study on the global burden of disease. Arkin says when LRAPA first issued Seneca’s permit as a mi- nor source of pollution, Beyond Toxics predicted the biomass plant would exceed limits and would apply to release more air toxics. If the company had applied to release higher levels as a major source it would have triggered a more stringent federal “new source re- view” under the Clean Air Act. In February 2014 LRAPA approved a modification of Seneca’s Standard Air Contaminant Discharge Permit. According to the complaint, LRAPA has said that air quality modeling and impacts analysis aren’t necessary because Seneca purchased emissions reductions credits from International Paper in Springfield, but Arkin points out that International Paper is 13 miles away from the community where Seneca releases its particu- late matter and located in a predominantly white area as opposed to a heavily Latino one. Crag attorney Christopher Winter says LRAPA has an obliga- tion to comply with the federal Civil Rights Act, and it’s up to EPA as the federal agency to ensure the agency has protected marginal- ized communities. LRAPA executive director Merlyn Hough says the Title VI is- sues were addressed in the permit that was issued earlier this year. According to LRAPA’s assessment in the permit “there would be no significant adverse impacts to any community, regardless of de- mographic makeup.” Arkin says that Beyond Toxics has patiently worked within the system “to let LRAPA know that it is not operating within the stan- dards of justice and public health.” — Camilla Mortensen IT’S ABOUT TIME B Y D AV I D WA G N E R LANE COUNTY AREA SPRAY SCHEDULE M Three Timber Company LLC, 767- 3785, plans to spray Polaris AC on 30 acres near Muslin Creek tributaries. See ODF notification 2014-781-00784, call Brian Peterson at 935-2283 with questions. Compiled by Jan Wroncy and Gary Hale, Forest- land Dwellers: 342-8332, forestlanddwellers.org CALLIPE FRITILLARY, SPEYERIA CALLIPE 8 A ugust 7, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com CLIMATE ACTION TEEN CAMP LOOKS FOR POSTIVE CHANGE An upcoming camp for teenagers presents an opportunity for kids to get involved in climate change justice. The Next Generation Cli- mate Action Camp, hosted by the Civil Liberties Defense Center, is aimed at empowering youth to make change in their communities, ac- cording to Amber Mongan, associate director of CLDC. “We wanted to provide the sort of action camps that are available to adults, but specify it for teenagers,” Mongan says. “Public schools don’t cover this kind of stuff, so we want to fill that need.” Lauren Regan, executive director at CLDC, said that after years of teaching Know Your Rights campaigns for adults, there were always some teens who wanted to partake as well. The camp hosts workshops on oppression, ethics, individual train- ings and histories of political movements. Two other organizations that are partnering with CLDC for the event, Ruckus Society and Backbone Campaign, will provide arts and crafts like screen-printing and banner-making, as well as events like hiking and an evening tal- ent show. Mongan says there will also be a mock “action,” including adults who will role play as police officers, bystanders and reporters for the camp participants to interact with. “The climate justice camp is not just environmental, it is immigrant rights, worker rights, racism, LGBT; all of those can be folded under the umbrella of climate justice because unless you deal with all of those systemic issues, you’ll never be able to stop climate change,” Regan says. “So part of the training will be about how to interact be- tween movements.” Youth action on climate change issues has been a hot topic lately and the Eugene City Council passed an ordinance July 28 to lock in preexisting goals of reducing fossil fuel consumption and carbon out- puts. According to national group Our Children’s Trust, the ordinance is “the first in the country to require carbon neutrality, fossil fuel-use reductions and the development of a carbon budget based on the best available science.” The student-led campaign to develop and pass the ordinance was a result of OCT’s Eugene-based Youth Climate Action Now (YouCAN). The ordinance seeks to create a carbon-neutral city government by 2020 and to cut resident use of fossil fuel by 50 percent by 2030. It also calls for a Comprehensive Climate Recovery Plan to guide the city and keep it on track for its goals. “We hope to assist in producing amazing activists that will not only do work such as we saw with the ordinance, but ones that will con- tinue to be even more effective in addressing climate change for their own future’s sake,” Regan says. According to Mongan, registration for the camp will stay open up until the night before on their website, cldc.org. Regan says that no one will be turned away due to lack of funds, since they have a scholarship reserve for those who need it. Next Generation Climate Justice Action Camp runs Aug. 15-17. Registration is online at cldc.org and scholarships available. For more information call 687-9180. — Anna V. Smith T he first flock of wild turkeys showed up in our neighborhood last year. Adults and young together were nine. This year our flock has 22 chicks alone. Early in the morning they show little fear and are easy to count. I think it is the fruit trees in our neighborhood that they like. One of the birds really stands out; its feathers are pure white, an inescapable tag that draws attention. As the fruit gets ripe and capsules drop seeds, birds that have recently fledged are fattening up for their first migration south. Now is a good time to keep an eye on the bird feeders. Keeping them clean and full will be much appreciated by our feathered friends. There is a nice full moon in the middle of the month. It is a great time to get up into the high country. Mountains by moonlight are magical. The timing of the full moon means, however, that the Perseid meteor shower is not likely to be dramatic. The wildflower meadows up in the mountains are coming into full bloom now. Some of the best have a pond or wetland in the middle of them. They are fun to visit but those ponds do produce mosquitoes. It’s best to camp in the woods away from ponds. Butterfly watching is a satisfying activity when sitting in the middle of a flower patch. There are a number of excellent guides that can help identification. The only equipment needed is a nice pair of binoculars. David Wagner is a botanist who has lived in Eugene for more than 30 years. He teaches moss classes and leads nature walks. He may be reached at fernzenmosses@me.com.
