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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 2017)
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 49 SECTION A SEPTEMBER 8, 2017 $1.00 Polluted dirt could move through Keizer traditional outlets, Keizer offi - cials were unaware of the plan to move the dirt through the city until an article appeared in the Statesman Journal in July, with a deadline for public comment looming, Sagmiller said. Nancy Sawka, a DEQ se- nior project manager, said that DEQ mailed out more than 200 public comment notices and the exclusion of Keizer Gridders roll past Vikings PAGE A11 was unintentional. “I would have expected that the developer or project engineer contact us regarding how their plan was going to work. They aren’t under any obligation to do that because they aren’t getting a permit from Keizer, but it would have been nice to get the heads up,” Sagmiller said. DEQ offi cials and Keizer representatives met on July 31 to discuss the matter, but Sag- miller said she was hesitant to put any faith in the commit- ments made until she saw it in writing. DEQ offi cials also ad- mitted they hadn’t visited the disposal site during the meet- ing, but have done so since. What is dieldrin ? Dieldrin is the primary concern in tainted dirt the Oregon Department of Environmental Qual- ity could allow to move through Keizer for dump- ing in abandoned quarries northeast of city limits. Dieldrin is an insecti- cide developed as an al- ternative to DDT in the 1940s. It was used primar- ily on fruit, soil and seed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned the use of dieldrin in 1970, but it is a legacy pollutant that remains in the environ- ment long after being in- troduced. Other pesticides – DDT, DDD, DDE, aldrin, atra- zine, chlorophyrifos and diuron – are present in the soil, but dieldrin is the only one that exceeds health standards. When as little as a pound of dieldrin enters the environment, the fed- eral government’s National Response Center (NRC) must be notifi ed immedi- ately. The NRC is operated by the U.S. Coast Guard and responds to environ- mental contaminations. After initial tests of 350 samples revealed the pres- ence of dieldrin and the 14,000 trips 152,000 cubic yards of soil Northstar Development dealing with the pesticide- By ERIC A. HOWALD contaminated dirt: moving to a Of the Keizertimes The Oregon Department of low-lying area of the property Environmental Quality (DEQ) and capping it, which would looked at several options for require ongoing monitor- handling contaminated soil ing; treating the soil onsite to reduce con- at the site of a tamination; residential de- excavating it velopment in It will take and moving it Salem before approximately to a landfi ll; or deter mining moving it to that moving it the quarry pits to two aban- for future con- doned quarries tinued agricul- north of Keizer tural use. would be the to move the Moving it best fi t. to the quarries The deci- was the cheap- sion boiled est option on down to how the board, but the soil could it had other be accessed benefi ts, Sawka by the pub- said. lic, said Nancy “Even if the contaminated Sawka, a senior project man- ager with DEQ. The owners soil was capped (onsite), there of the Northstar development, would always be a chance that Granada Land Company, LLC, residents or children could proposed several options for come in contact with the soil by Polluted soil departs here Please see CITY, Page A9 DEQ decision hinged on how the soil would be used, not where other pollutants, an ad- ditional 10 were ordered specifi cally for dieldrin testing. The suggested limit on dieldrin is .02 parts- per-million (PPM). Tests of 10 soil samples from the development site in last month revealed three without dieldrin contami- nation, six samples between .02 and .08 PPM, and one sample where the contami- nation was nearly 10 times the permissible level. The report on the con- tamination, supplied by Multi/Tech Engineering Services, Inc., suggests that further testing is necessary to determine the breadth and depth of the affected soil. In addition to the soil passing through Keizer to the disposal site, Eliza- beth Sagmiller, manager of Keizer’s environmental and technical division, said continuing to use the soil for farming could also be a problem. Because dieldrin breaks down slowly, it is subject to biomagnifi ca- tion, the process by which toxic substances accumu- late in larger amounts the higher up the food chain it goes. Luau at Keizer Rapids PAGE A3 New Claggett principal PAGE A4 Lady Celt returns to pitch strong PAGE A11 Please see DIELDRIN, Page A9 dig- ging or that the soil could be exposed during outdoor projects or sub- surface work,” she said. It would require that ev- ery home on the property come with a deed restriction notifying all future owners of the dieldrin contamination (see sidebar: What is dieldrin?). While that might work fi ne for immediate owners, the likeli- hood of forgetting over time makes it a problematic solu- tion. “This can result in people being exposed to contamina- tion in the future, often with- out knowing about it. Espe- cially for a site like this with contamination over a large area, with many different fu- ture land owners, capping and managing soil in place would be very diffi cult to implement and not as protective as remov- ing it in a controlled manner under DEQ oversight,” Sawka said. Sawka said the owners did not look at alternative sites for FIRST RESPONDER APPRECIATION PROGRAM Keizer Polluted soil arrives here By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes The City of Keizer is ask- ing for more information be- fore the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) permits a contractor to truck 152,000 cubic yards of polluted soil through Keiz- er. “The city is not oppos- ing the project, we just want questions answered and to make sure that our citizens are protected and our neighbors are protected,” said Elizabeth Sagmiller, manager of Keizer’s environmental and technical division. The main concern is the presence of a pesticide called dieldrin (see sidebar: What is dieldrin?). The soil contains several long-lasting pollutants, but dieldrin is the only one that exceeds health standards for residential use. The current plan is to haul the soil – in ap- proximately 14,000 truckloads – from a development site off Hazelgreen Road Northeast in Salem, west on Lockhav- en Drive and then north on Windsor Island road to fi ll in two abandoned quarries. The route travels near hundreds of Keizer residences, directly past three schools (Chemawa Indian School, Whiteaker Middle School and McNary High School), and a block away from Keizer Elementary School. Granada Land Company, LLC, has already begun work on a planned 500-home resi- dential development at the Hazelgreen site, known as Northstar. Windsor Island Company, LLC, which is owned by the Zielinski Fam- ily Trust owns the planned disposal site at 6848 Windsor Island Road North, which is outside Keizer city limits. Visi- tors to the development site can see where several inches of soil have already been re- moved in the southeast corner of the 150-acre development. For now, the tainted soil is be- ing stored on the site. Despite public notices in Private Farmland City wants more info before plan progresses Ford wants to thank you for your service. dumping the soil. Aside from cost, each of the possible solutions was scored on: the effectiveness and pro- tectiveness of the clean-up, the long-term reliability, how dif- fi cult or easily the plan could be implemented, any risks as- sociated with performing the actions. DEQ offi cials also paid at- tention to the how the soil would be used in the quarries – for growing hazelnuts. To that end, DEQ consulted the Oregon Department of Agri- Please see DEQ, Page A9 2017 F- 150 2017 SUPER DUTY $ 1,000 BONUS CASH * 3555 River Road N, Keizer (503) 463 - 4853 www.skylineforddirect.com ON TOP OF CURRENT OFFERS * First Responder Appreciation Cash exclusively for active members of an eligible First Responder Association. Special $1000 bonus cash limited to the purchase or lease of an eligible new 2017 model year F-150 or Super Duty (F-250 thru F-550) and must take delivery by October 2, 2017. 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