DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2018
146TH YEAR, NO. 126
Parks
stay open
during
shutdown
ONE DOLLAR
County needle exchange
has surprising results
Visitor access, but no staff
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
National parks remain open and
mostly unstaffed during a government
shutdown that began Saturday, while the
Coast Guard is maintaining rescue and
other essential services without pay until
a new budget deal is reached by Presi-
dent Donald Trump and Congress.
Notes at the entrances to Lewis and
Clark National Historical Park warn vis-
itors that while the park is open, they
enter at their own risk. Jon Burpee, the
superintendent of Lewis and Clark, said
the National Park Service is restricted to
opening access and ensuring park assets
are OK.
Only one National Park Service
employee in the park is on duty, opening
gates at different sites and checking on
park assets — also without pay.
‘I WORKED THE LAST
TWO DAYS, AND THERE
WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE
HITTING THE TRAILS.’
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Lisa McClean and Nancy Mazzarella-Tisch set up the Clatsop County needle exchange in Astoria.
About 213,000
syringes
collected since
October 2017
Jon Burpee | superintendent
of Lewis and Clark
“They’re the lone ranger right now,”
Burpee said.
The park’s visitor center, closed for
the shutdown, often gets a bump from
visitors buying gifts for Christmas.
Monday was also the 213th anniversary
of when the Corps of Discovery moved
into the newly constructed Fort Clat-
sop. The park would normally employ
about 27 people this time of year,
including living history exhibits for the
anniversary.
“I worked the last two days, and there
were a lot of people hitting the trails,”
Burpee said on Monday.
Access will generally remain open
during regular business hours, except if
there are issues with safety or maintain-
ing park resources, Burpee said.
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A
Clean syringes are available and used ones can be disposed of at the needle
exchange.
See Parks, Page A8
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
While access to the trails around Lewis
and Clark National Historical Park remains
open during the government shutdown,
the visitor center is closed.
fter more than a year,
Clatsop County’s needle
exchange has opened some
eyes.
Since October 2017, county pub-
lic health officials — along with a rep-
resentative from Jordan’s Hope for
Recovery — have handed out 210,000
syringes and collected 213,000. They
have encountered 415 participants and
provided 265 naloxone kits to treat
drug overdoses.
The number administrators tout
the most, though, is 35. That fig-
ure accounts for overdose reversals
reported from the program’s naloxone
training and handouts.
“I said to the (Clatsop County
commission) about expectations,
again, if we saved one life we did our
job,” county Public Health Director
Michael McNickle said. “I would say
it’s an incredible success, and it needs
to continue.”
The outreach has also shed
light on the scope of the county’s opi-
oid problem. The majority of peo-
ple who use the program say they are
not homeless and have health
insurance.
The drug of choice for most is her-
oin, followed by methamphetamine.
McNickle said he has seen a number
of people, in business attire, drive up
to the exchange.
Naloxone, a medication used to treat opioid overdoses, is also available through
the exchange.
See Needles, Page A8
Oregon recycling rate rises
Progress despite
China’s decision
to cut imports
By JES BURNS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
A report from the Oregon
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality shows the state’s
recycling rate in 2017 was
42.8 percent, slightly better
than the previous year.
Doubling of the bottle
deposit to 10 cents was a
booster for the state’s recy-
cling rate. But recycling had
setbacks, too, including the
closure of local paper mills
that bought recycled paper
and China deciding to cut
off recycling imports from
the United States.
Glass and paper recycling
ticked up, while plastic,
electronic and organic waste
recycling declined between
2016 and 2017.
The annual report shows
Oregon is still a long way
from its recycling goal of 52
percent by 2020.
“Honestly, we’re not
going to make it,” said Peter
Spendelow, a waste reduc-
tion specialist with the
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality. “When we set
that goal, which was just a
few years ago, we were not
anticipating that we would
lose the huge wood markets.
And we also weren’t antici-
pating the China crisis.”
In response to Chi-
na’s 2017 announcement it
would no longer take U.S.
exported recyclables, local
waste management compa-
nies started to scale back.
Many, including Recol-
ogy Western Oregon, which
serves the North Coast, also
raised garbage rates.
Overall, the report found
that Lane County had the
best recycling rate in the
state in 2017 at 52.8 per-
cent, followed by the Port-
land metro area and Marion
County. In Clatsop County,
Jes Burns/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Bales of recycling get wet outside Rogue Waste Systems in
White City.
the rate was 29.5 percent.
At the other end of the
spectrum was scantly-pop-
ulated Lake County, which
recycled slightly more than
9 percent of the total waste
it created.
Spendelow said the state
has hired a contractor to take
a big-picture look at how
Oregon recycles. The aim
is to make the system more
resilient to these kinds of
market fluctuations.