PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 08, 2022
OSHA, PUC remind Oregonians:
call before you dig
Governor Kate Brown has designated
April as “Oregon Dig Safely Month.” Per
direction, the Oregon Occupational Safety
and Health Division (Oregon OSHA) and
Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC)
remind Oregonians to call 811 before
digging.
Whether a professional contractor
or do-it-yourselfer, all play an import-
ant role in preventing damage to under-
ground utilities. No matter how big or
small of a project, call Oregon 811 to avoid
life-threatening injuries and prevent
costly damage to necessary utility ser-
vices. There are three easy steps to safe
digging in Oregon:
• Call Oregon 811 (dial 811) at least two
working days before starting a digging
project.
• Wait for utilities to mark the under-
ground lines.
• Dig carefully, paying close attention
to the marks.
Once a call to 811 is made, the Oregon
Utility Notification Center (OUNC),
which operates the free 811 one-call cen-
ter, notifies the utility companies that
serve the area of the planned project.
Utility personnel then visit the project site
to mark the approximate location of the
underground lines, pipes and cables in
the planned digging area at no cost to the
homeowner or employer.
Meanwhile, Oregon OSHA requires
employers to follow requirements to pro-
tect workers against the potential hazards
of underground utilities. Those require-
ments include:
• Notifying the OUNC of the proposed
area of excavations at least two work-
ing days before starting an excavation.
Estimating the location of utilities before
opening or extending an excavation.
• Determining by safe and acceptable
means, the exact location of the estimated
utility installations when excavation activ-
ities approach them.
• While excavations are open, under-
ground installations must be protected,
supported, or removed as necessary to
safeguard employees.
Statistics show that a majority of line
strikes occur during the warmer months
when excavation and construction work is
being done. In 2020 an estimated 385,000
unique damages occurred nationwide,
22% of which were due to insufficient
notice to the 811 service.
To reduce the number of line strikes
in Oregon, there are strong local partner-
ships between the OUNC, Oregon OSHA,
and the PUC to enhance the communica-
tion link and improve safety efforts.
Call 811 or visit digsafelyoregon.
com/resources/locate-requests to sub-
mit a locate request or to learn more
about safe digging practices. View
Governor Brown’s Oregon Dig Safely
Month Proclamation at digsafelyoregon.
com/news.
Oregon OSHA offers employers
free consultations – no fault, no citations,
no penalties – to improve workplace health
and safety programs and practices. It also
offers free technical help with understand-
ing and applying workplace safety rules.
Oregon OSHA, a division of the
Department of Consumer and Business
Services, enforces the state’s workplace
safety and health rules, and works to
improve workplace safety and health for
all Oregon workers. For more information,
go to osha.oregon.gov.
The PUC regulates customer rates
and services of the state’s investor-owned
electric, natural gas and telephone util-
ities, as well as select water companies.
The PUC’s mission is to ensure Oregon
utility customers have access to safe, reli-
able, and high quality utility services at
just and reasonable rates. For more infor-
mation, visit oregon.gov/puc.
More flooding, mudslides in Oregon as
extreme fires to be followed by extreme rains
BY ALEX BAUMHARDT
Of the Salem Capital Chronicle
Oregon will face more mudslides and
flooding during the next 80 years as a
result of extreme wildfires followed by
extreme rains, according to scientists in
Colorado, California and Washington.
The findings, published in Science
Advances – the journal of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science – show that extreme wildfire
events across the west will increase in
the next several decades, and by the
later half of the century, extreme rainfall
events will be just as common.
The combination of the two will lead
to greater risk of flood and mudslides
due to landscapes destabilized by fires,
the scientists concluded.
Danielle Touma is a climate scientist
at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colorado, who
worked on the study with researchers
from the University of California in Santa
Barbara and from Washington State
University in Vancouver.
“You’re getting an increase in one of
these ingredients at the beginning of the
21st century,” Touma said, “and by the
end of the 21st century you’re getting
both.”
She said that of the 11 states they
looked at, Oregon “will have the largest
changes in terms of extreme weather
events.”
Maps of wildfire and rainfall projec-
tions show the greatest growth in fire
and rainfall will occur in eastern Oregon.
Touma said she and her colleagues ran
hundreds of years of climate data to reach
their projections, but did not explore why
the eastern half of the state appears to
have more fire and rain events through
the rest of the century.
Touma cited ongoing drought in
the eastern part of Oregon as well as
effects of air pressure and temperature
increases east of the Cascades in the
decades ahead.
The projections were based on green-
house gas emissions continuing without
climate mitigation efforts outlined in the
Fifth Assessment Report of the United
Nations Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. That report was pub-
lished in 2014.
The final installment of the Sixth
Assessment Report was published
Monday, and showed that while there is
evidence of some countries decreasing
greenhouse gas emissions since 2014,
emissions overall during the last decade
were the highest in human history.
The frequency and duration of wild-
fires and heavy rains in the West has
accelerated due to human-caused cli-
mate change, according to the scien-
tists. Without global climate mitigation,
Oregon could face up to seven extreme
wildfires and seven extreme rainfall
events per year by 2100, according to the
study.
“Our results point to a future with sub-
stantially increased post-fire hydrologic
risks across much of the western United
States,” the report states.
While rains following a fire might
sound beneficial, Touma said it’s a recipe
for mudslides, floods and destruction.
“Extreme rain can be detrimental
after a fire,” Touma said. “The landscape
changes a lot. It loses vegetation, the soil
becomes hydrophobic so it repels water,
it doesn’t absorb it.”
The loss of vegetation means a loss of
root systems holding soil in place. Layers
of burned debris on the surface flow into
waterways and down slopes.
“Sometimes you don’t even need that
much rainfall to trigger an event,” she
said.
The scientists found that impacts are
greater when extreme rainfall occurs
within one or two years after a wildfire,
because there is still a large amount of
surface debris and loose soil.
Within five years of an extreme wild-
fire event, the scientists predict Oregon
would see at least three rain events fol-
lowing in an impacted area.
court
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Rachel Isabelle Nava, $265; Kaycee
Shyann Alizabet Stanton, $265; Jorge E
Corral, $265; German Roldan-Soto, $245;
Andrew Duane McClelland, $307; Felipa
Espinosa Viveros, $245;
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Rachel Isabelle Nava, $307; Kaycee
Shyann Alizabet Stanton, $307; Jorge E
Corral, $307; Victoria Lenette Hensley, $265;
Rachel Marie Hazen, $265; Cesar Lozano
Barrera, $265; Natalie Sue Krummen, $265;
Bruce Wayne Stout, $265; Jason Michael
West, $265; Bryan Robert McClaskey, $235;
Ramon A Davalos Orozco, $150;
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Tricia Alexis Haslett, $307; Ivan N
Kulikov, $265; Anthony James Earl
Vorderstrasse, $265; German Roldan-Soto,
$245; Andrew Duane McClelland, $265;
Ignacio Lopez Urena, $265; Flor Estela
Chavez San Juan, $265; Jessie Miguel
Cornejo, $265; Nicolas G Macalino, $235;
Gregory S Moser, $265;
DRIVING WHILE SUSPENDED
Damian Jerardo Garcia, $482; Victoria
Lenette Hensley, $440; Ivan N Kulikov,
$482; Rachel Marie Hazen, $482; Cesar
Lozano Barrera, $482; Anthony James Earl
Vorderstrasse, $482; Natalie Sue Krummen,
$482; Bruce Wayne Stout, $482; Brandon
Derek Cardenas, $482; Stacia Marie Purdie,
$482; Cori Ellen Winchester, $482; Alan
Curtis Jones, $482; Jason Michael West,
$440; Ignacio Lopez Urena, $482; Flor Estela
Chavez San Juan, $482; Jessie Miguel
Cornejo, $482; Bryan Robert McClaskey,
$395; Gabriela Vicentin Vega, $440; Jose
Jesus Hernandez Camilo, $440; Cameron
Tyler James Phillips, $482; Gregory S
Moser, $482;
USE OF MOBILE DEVICE
Bradly Allen Blaise, $307; Noemi
Venegas, $235;
SPEEDING
Victoria Lenette Hensley, $207; John
Anthony Bugado, $245; Anita Michele
Lowe, $235; Blanca A Azucena Delgado,
$135; Micah Jeffrey Summerfelt, $145;
Graeson Joseph Williams, $135; Andrea
Elizabeth Gale, $135; Luz E Chavez Chavez,
$135; Elayne Delores Durham, $145; Biaggio
Didier Camarena, $235;
FAILURE TO OBEY
TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICE
Jacob Aaron Coble, $245; Ian Eugene
Monjar, $307; Jason Michael West, $307;
Cameron Tyler James Phillips, $265; Bryan
Oliver Vasquezboc, $235;
OTHER
Branden Lee Reaves, $307, careless driv-
ing; Ivan N Kulikov, $115, failure to regis-
ter vehicle; Jonathan Xavier Canchola
Bravo, $100, careless driving; Skyler Allen
Christensen, $307, careless driving; Darryl
Dean Gibson, $157, pedestrian failure to
yield to vehicle; Kenton Richard Kugler,
$385, careless driving; Devon Everrett Bell,
$115, failure to register vehicle; Christina
Marie Richards, $40, failure to renew reg-
istration; Edwin Hugo Fink, $245, danger-
ous left turn; Jason Gaudia Fortaleza, $265,
dangerous left turn; Gabriela Vicentin
Vega, $265, misuse of special left turn lane;
Matthew Jon Dyer, $395, careless driving;
Robert John Peters, $40, failure to renew
registration;