A2 Hood River News,
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
G REATER G ORGE
www.hoodrivernews.com
Dirt Hugger settles in at Dallesport
By AMBER MARRA
The Enterprise
After four years in The
Dalles, Dirt Hugger, LLC is fi-
nally establishing itself.
Earlier this year, the com-
mercial composting company
announced that it entered into
a 30-year lease with the Port of
Klickitat for nine acres at the
Dallesport Industrial Park off
US 197 near Tidyman Road.
The move comes four years
after Dirt Hugger originally
got on its feet in The Dalles
where it sold more than 10,000
yards of compost. Pierce
Louis, co-owner of Dirt Hug-
ger, said that gave his compa-
ny time to develop and refine
its processes before investing
the $500,000 that it will take to
finish its new location.
“After four years of making
mistakes and learning from
those mistakes we’re able to
design from the ground up
and we feel really fortunate to
have that chance because not
many composters have that
opportunity,” Louis said.
To make its move, Dirt Hug-
ger borrowed money, used
four grants, and launched a
successful Kickstarter cam-
paign.
A grant obtained by the
Port of Klickitat through
USDA Rural Development
came to $50,000 and other
grants through Klickitat
County came to $35,000 to help
pay for power, water, and in-
frastructure that would pro-
vide pollution control.
Then there is the Kick-
starter. As of July 3, Dirt Hug-
ger’s Kickstarter campaign
surpassed its $65,000 goal with
276 backers raising $66,579.
“That’s amazing. That is
what made this possible en-
tirely. We needed to be out of
that site by Nov. 1 and had to
start construction here and
we didn’t have our loan in
place yet, so literally that
Kickstarter money is what
carried us through because
we were in deep financially
with construction before we
got our loan,” Louis said.
“There’s five of us wandering
around in the dirt all day, but
it’s totally community
backed.”
As of December, Louis said
the Dallesport facility was 60
percent done with a comple-
Amber Marra photo
PIERCE LOUIS, co-owner of Dirt Hugger, stands next to one of the many piles of compost at the com-
pany’s new facility in Dallesport. Dirt Hugger signed a lease with the Port of Klickitat earlier this year
and made the move after four years at its previous facility in The Dalles.
tion date set for spring of 2015.
Under its current, partially
finished circumstances, Dirt
Hugger is composting “the old
school way,” as Louis would
say, but all that really means is
that they’re operating the
same way they were when
they were located in The
Dalles.
Once completed, Dirt Hug-
ger will be able to make high-
er quality compost faster, with
some processes being cut from
90 days to just 45. Much of that
is due to the enormous aera-
tion pad that will be installed
as soon as the weather allows
for the pouring of concrete.
In Louis’s words, the en-
hanced aeration is “a giant air
hockey pad, essentially” that
will optimize the environment
for the microbial populations
needed to create compost.
“With this aeration pad, the
first seven-to-14 days the mi-
crobes demand the most oxy-
gen, especially if you take in a
lot of fruit like we do. The cell
walls of the fruit break down
in about three days, so there’s
a big oxygen demand and if
you can supply that air when
you really want it then they’ll
be really efficient about
OLCC survey seeks input
over legality of marijuana
The Oregon Liquor Con-
trol Commission has
launched an online commu-
nity survey at marijua-
na.oregon.gov asking Ore-
gonians to share their
hopes and concerns about
the coming legal market for
recreational marijuana.
The survey, which is open
through Monday, Jan. 12,
will help the agency plan a
statewide listening tour to
be announced later this
month.
“We need to hear from
Oregonians across the state
as we implement the law,”
said OLCC Chairman Rob
Patridge. “We need to hear
from community members,
parents, law enforcement,
people who want to grow or
sell recreational marijuana,
and local governments. We
want to know your priori-
ties. What should marijua-
na regulation look like in
your community?” Patridge
said the survey and listen-
ing tour are the first steps
in a yearlong rulemaking
process that will include
monthly Commission meet-
ings, rules advisory com-
mittee meetings and other
opportunities to hear from
the public.
Under the new law, pos-
s e s s i o n o f re c re at i o n a l
marijuana becomes legal on
July 1 of this year. The
OLCC must begin accepting
applications for commer-
cial licenses next January,
with retail stores to open by
late 2016.
Author looks for stories
of fire lookouts in Oregon
Portland author Cheryl
Hill has been gathering his-
toric photos from the Forest
Service and the Oregon De-
partment of Forestry for the
past year and is now looking
for stories to go along with
the photos.
Although stories from re-
cent lookouts are welcome,
Hill is especially interested
in lookout stories from the
1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, even if
the stories are second-hand.
“Many of the men and
women who worked at look-
outs back then have already
passed away,” Hill said.
“I’m hoping that some of
their memories were passed
down to their children.”
To share your lookout
story, visit www.oregon-look-
outs.com.
This will be Hill’s second
book. Her first book, “Mount
Hood National Forest,” was
released last March.
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breaking the pile down,”
Louis said.
The aeration pad will also
allow for better temperature
control and will allow piles of
compost to be moved in just 12
minutes, whereas before it
could take up to two hours.
“Our old style was some-
thing called thermophilic,
which is a higher heat process
at 165 degrees, which is re-
quired and we still need for
the pathogen reduction phase
to basically kill off anything
like salmonella that could
come in with the food. If you
can then get the temperature
back down to 120 degrees the
mesophilic microbes will be
four times more efficient, so
that’s how we’re getting our
process down from 90 days to
45 days,” Louis said.
Now that Dirt Hugger will
have an increased ability to
make compost, the company
is hoping that haulers and city
councils around the Gorge
will work together to establish
curbside food scrap and com-
post pick-up programs.
Louis said he approached
trash haulers in multiple com-
munities about the opportuni-
ty to establish such a pro-
gram, but no one wanted to
take him up on it at the time.
The City of White Salmon
gave Dirt Hugger the go-ahead
to start picking up compost
last year, but that only lasted
two months before the compa-
ny ran into complications
with licensing and permits.
“It’s up to the community to
demand it of their council.
We’ve done our part by creat-
ing the infrastructure and the
capacity to handle it, but I
can’t go to a city council and
make them have composting,”
Louis said.
Once the new facility is fin-
ished this spring, Louis said
he and Dirt Hugger’s other
five employees plan on revisit-
ing city councils to try to get
more curbside composting
programs going, but during
the hectic transitional period,
there just was no time.
“There was a lot of pain as-
sociated with moving, emo-
tionally, financially, but now
that we’re here this is a much
better location, the layout is
much better, and it’s a really
healthy, positive move for us.
We feel like we’re finally sort
of establishing ourselves,”
Louis said.
Photo by Diana Beterbide
F REEZE F RAMES
Multnomah Falls and Benson Bridge, Dec. 31. Send your
Freeze Frame images (1MB, provide brief details) to
hrnews@hoodrivernews.com.
CGCC seeks applicants to
serve on budget committee
The Columbia Gorge Com-
munity College Board of Ed-
ucation seeks interested dis-
trict electors in Wasco and
Hood River County for con-
sideration to be appointed to
a three-year term as a Bud-
get Committee member.
Interested persons shall
send a letter of interest with
qualifications, telephone and
address to Tiffany Prince,
Columbia Gorge Community
College, 400 East Scenic Dr.,
The Dalles, OR 97058.
Deadline for consideration
is Jan. 31. Columbia Gorge
Community College is an
equal opportunity educator
and employer, and its district
includes all of Wasco and
Hood River Counties (with
the exception of Cascade
Locks, which is included in
the Mt. Hood Community
College District).
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