4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2018
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Wade Tucker, left, and Kelly Anderson work the night shift with the Oregon Department of Transportation spraying de-icing material on roads.
Spraying: Magnesium chloride is not without its own dangers
Continued from Page 1A
The mixture — referred to by road
managers as “mag” — is applied when
temperatures range between 25 and 38
degrees Fahrenheit, with no rain fore-
casted in the next 24 hours. Transportation
workers deploy sand when packed snow
and ice already cover the highway. While
the de-icer has been invaluable in help-
ing keep highways passable, Anderson
said it can also give drivers a false sense
of security.
“They see us putting out the de-icer,
and they’re flying,” he said. “But they
don’t realize it might be really cold, or
there might be a bad batch.”
Tucker and Anderson cautioned against
driving at all when there is freezing rain, or
when temperatures fall dangerously low,
and advise drivers to stay well away from
the trucks deploying magnesium chloride,
a highly corrosive substance over time.
Last winter, more than 430,000 gal-
lons of magnesium chloride was spread on
Northwest Oregon roadways, along with
about 9,000 cubic yards of sand. The state
has used the de-icer for nearly 20 years,
Buffington said.
Wade Tucker stands next to a tank of magnesium chloride, which is used by the
Oregon Department of Transportation to treat area roads for ice.
Oregon has eschewed the more com-
mon rock salt and salt brine used by neigh-
boring states to de-ice roads because of the
harm to water quality and aquatic life as
residual chlorides drain into streams. Evi-
dence has been scant, however, as to the
environmental friendliness of magnesium
chloride. The state has recently experi-
mented with rock salt on especially treach-
erous stretches of road near borders with
California, Idaho and Nevada.
Even with corrosion inhibitors mixed
in to limit damage to property, magnesium
chloride is not without its own dangers.
The results of a study published in 2015
by the state and Alaska University Trans-
portation Center showed magnesium chlo-
ride can weaken the state’s bridge decks
and piers after 10 to 20 years of treatment,
increasing the possibility of premature
failure. The damage is not visible from
the road surface, but core samples showed
magnesium chloride’s ability to weaken
the elasticity of concrete in absorbing the
force and weight of cars driving overhead.
“It could be catastrophic,” Xianming
Shi told The Bend Bulletin in a 2015 story
about the study. “I think it’s important to
educate the public on what the risks are.”
Shi recommended washing down
bridges at the end of winter, because most
of the damage occurs in summer, and
said alternate mixes of Portland cement
could mitigate damage. State transpor-
tation spokesman Dave Thompson told
the paper at the time that the state main-
tained the practice of sealing bridge decks
prior to winter, but hadn’t created a plan in
response to the study’s findings.
Bundys go free in Nevada — and dismissal reverberates across Oregon
By AMELIA
TEMPLETON, CONRAD
WILSON and AMANDA
PEACHER
Oregon Public Broadcasting
A federal judge in Nevada
Monday dismissed the crim-
inal indictment against the
Bundy family and one of their
key supporters, dealing fed-
eral prosecutors and federal
land management agencies an
embarrassing rebuke.
In Oregon, the dismissal
prompted both celebration
and deep dismay.
The case stemmed from a
2014 standoff between mem-
bers of the Bundy family, fel-
low ranchers, armed mili-
tia and the Bureau of Land
Management.
U.S. District Court Judge
Gloria Navarro ruled that
federal prosecutors improp-
erly withheld key information
from the defense, and she dis-
missed the charges with prej-
udice. That effectively ends
the government’s case against
family patriarch Cliven
Bundy, his sons Ammon and
Ryan, and Army veteran and
militia leader Ryan Payne.
“The day has changed,”
said Brett Whipple, Cliven
Bundy’s lawyer. “There will
be a new standard for the gov-
ernment’s treatment of evi-
dence and requirements of
due process.”
Technically, prosecutors
could appeal Navarro’s rul-
ing, but they realistically face
a difficult path if they choose
to pursue charges against the
four men.
“The federal government
is out of touch with the local
needs is what this really comes
down to,” Whipple said.
The Bunkerville standoff
began in spring 2014 when
the Bureau of Land Manage-
ment obtained a court order to
round up and impound Cliven
Bundy’s cattle, which were
grazing on the public land
next to his family’s ranch. For
two decades, the elder Bundy
refused to pay grazing fees.
He owes the BLM more than
$1 million in unpaid fees and
fines.
The case raises questions
about the BLM’s ability to
effectively manage more than
150 million acres of graz-
ing leases across the Ameri-
can West, including 14 mil-
lion acres in Oregon. It was
closely watched by environ-
mentalists, cattle ranchers and
anti-government activists.
And it’s the second sweep-
ing victory for the Bundys and
shocking defeat for the U.S.
Department of Justice; broth-
ers Ammon and Ryan Bundy
were acquitted for their role
leading the occupation of the
Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge in Harney County in
2016.
The Bundys and their fol-
lowers contend the Constitu-
tion prohibits the federal gov-
ernment from owning land.
Vindication
Members of various militia
and so-called patriot groups
that have followed the case
said the judge’s ruling is vin-
dication for their long-held
beliefs.
“This is huge,” said Ken
K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal
Cliven Bundy walks out of federal court with his wife, Car-
ol, on Monday in Las Vegas after a judge dismissed crimi-
nal charges against him and his sons accused of leading
an armed uprising against federal authorities in 2014.
Medenbach, a 23-year vet-
eran of the sovereign-citizen
movement who was acquitted
by the Oregon jury for his role
in the Malheur occupation.
“There’s nothing in the Con-
stitution that gives the federal
government the power to own
land in the states.”
Legal scholars say that
issue, however, has been set-
tled. The U.S. Supreme Court
has upheld the federal govern-
ment’s broad authority to own
and manage land.
Medenbach described the
outcome of the Nevada case
as example of the corruption
of the federal government —
and of divine intervention.
“There’s a higher power
in control,” he said. “Federal
land is going to go back to
the states. Abortion is going
to stop, same-sex marriage
is going to stop. Otherwise
God is going to destroy this
country.”
Neil Wampler also stood
trial with the Bundys for the
Malheur occupation.
“They tried to make an
example out of this good fam-
ily, and we made an example
out of them,” he said Monday.
Speaking to reporters out-
side the federal courthouse
in Las Vegas, Ammon Bundy
encouraged people to assert
their rights.
“And then when it comes
time to defend them, they
need to defend them,” he said
in a video posted online by
The Oregonian.
Even though it was a sep-
arate case, many environmen-
talists and opponents of the
occupation in Eastern Oregon
viewed the Nevada case as an
opportunity to get justice.
“It’s
heartbreaking,
because I know so many peo-
ple who have worked to sup-
port everything the BLM
stands for and managing the
land,” said Liz Appelman, a
Harney County resident who
worked for the BLM for 30
years.
“Federal
prosecutors
clearly bungled this case and
let the Bundys get away with
breaking the law,” tweeted
Kieran Suckling, executive
director of the Center for Bio-
logical Diversity. “The fail-
ure of this case will only
embolden this violent and rac-
ist anti-government move-
ment that wants to take over
our public lands.”
Darling of
conservatives
During
the
Bunker-
ville standoff, Cliven Bundy
became a darling of conser-
vative media and politicians,
until he told a journalist he
wondered if African-Ameri-
cans were “better off as slaves,
picking cotton.”
While the Bundys went to
trial and successfully fought
the charges against them, a
handful of other defendants in
the Nevada standoff were con-
victed by a jury.
In Oregon, several less-
er-known defendants charged
in the Malheur wildlife ref-
uge occupation pleaded guilty,
and others were found guilty
at a trial in 2017 of conspir-
acy or damaging government
property. Among those who
pleaded guilty in the Oregon
case is Ryan Payne, who no
longer faces charges for his
role in the Bunkerville stand-
off. Prosecutors have recom-
mended he serve three to four
years for his role in the Ore-
gon occupation.
The 13 defendants who
pleaded or were found guilty
in the Malheur occupation are
collectively paying $78,000 in
restitution.
Andrew Comez, standby
attorney for Jason Patrick,
who was convicted of con-
spiracy, acknowledged that
the gamble of going to trial
rather than accepting a plea
agreement paid off for some.
“On one level, of course
there’s a miscarriage of jus-
tice, assuming first that
they’re all guilty, which I
don’t concede,” he said. “But,
in a perfect world, everyone
who did the crime should do
their time, right? But we know
that doesn’t happen.”
Bundy’s cattle, a herd
of big-eared, humped-back
Brahman crosses, still graze
federal lands near the Bundy
ranch, four years after the
BLM’s failed attempt to round
them up.
Whipple, Cliven Bundy’s
attorney, estimates that at one
time, there were about 400
mothers and calves, but they
have likely been reproducing
on the range, he said.
“There’s probably more
of them there than there were
before.”