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.