UMATILLA HOUSE
FIRE DISPLACES
TWO WOMEN
31/27
REGION/3A
TRUMP SAYS
BANNON ‘LOST
HIS MIND’
NATION/7A
THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 2018
142nd Year, No. 56
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Beware
the f lu
Flu season takes
off; not too late
to vaccinate
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Infl uenza activity spiked
this week in Oregon, but
procrastinators still have
time to get their fl u shots.
Dr. Ann Thomas, a public
health physician for the
Oregon Health Authority,
said fl u season took off
dramatically in the last
couple weeks.
“Last season, we doubled
our hospitalizations (from
800 to 1,500),” she said.
“This year is looking like
another record year — and
not in a good way.”
The state is experiencing
intense and widespread
fl u activity. More than 120
people were hospitalized
with fl u-like symptoms in
Portland during the week
ending Dec. 23 — the most
recent week reported. The
state doesn’t track hospital-
izations outside the metro
area, but Umatilla County
hospitals are also seeing an
uptick.
“We’ve been seeing more
positive cases,” said Nick
Bejarano, spokesman for
Good Shepherd Medical
Center. “We’re seeing cases
earlier in the season and
more frequently.”
Since Dec. 1, 88 patients
tested positive for fl u in
Good Shepherd’s emergency
department, Bejarano said,
77 for infl uenza A and 11 for
infl uenza B.
St. Anthony Hospital in
Pendleton is also seeing an
upswing.
“The fl u is here,” said
St.
Anthony
Hospital
spokesman Larry Blanc.
He knew of four people
currently admitted with
infl uenza-like illness and
said ER doctors are testing
more patients with fl u-like
symptoms. So far, 16
patients tested positive (11
for A and fi ve for B). Of
those 16 patients, four said
they had been vaccinated.
A station with masks and
hand sanitizer now sits near
St. Anthony’s entryway for
visitors who haven’t been
vaccinated or suspect they
might be ill. It’s a similar
scenario at Good Shepherd.
Unvaccinated
employees
at both hospitals must don
masks.
Dr. Jon Hitzman, a family
physician and the county
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A sledder races down a hill in the sno-park at Andies Prairie on Monday east of Tollgate.
Sno-parks galore in Eastern Ore
The best spots to
snowshoe, ski,
sled and more
By TIM TRAINOR
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A pair of snowshoers stop to talk to a man with his snow bike on a mixed-use trail at Andies Prairie
sno-park Monday east of Tollgate.
See FLU/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Horseshoe Prairie nordic ski area offers cross
country skiers and snowshoers nearly 10 miles of
marked trails.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A pair of snowmobilers ride down a mixed-use trail
in Andies Prairie sno-park Monday east of Tollgate.
As winter reaches its peak in
Eastern Oregon, many residents
are looking for opportunities
to bust through the inversion
into playgrounds of deep snow
beneath blue skies.
Luckily, the region has
numerous options for affordable
recreation on public lands — no
matter what kind of recreating
you like to do. In many cases,
an Oregon sno-park is nothing
more than a plowed parking
lot that abuts prime public
recreation land. Snowmobilers,
snowshoers, skiers and sledders
may look to different parks in
the area for one that best fi ts
their favorite form of recreation.
But according to Mark
Penninger,
acting
public
affairs offi cer for the Wallowa-
Whitman National Forest, there
is little information available
about how many people use
sno-parks in the region, as well
as their preferred mode of travel
once they get there.
“We don’t have quantitative
information about use,” he
said. “It’s not something we’ve
collected before.”
Partly that’s because no
two winters look the same.
According to Penninger, crews
could not plow all of last year’s
snow in some parks, whereas
this year a four-wheel drive car
with proper tires can get many
places in Eastern Oregon forests.
See SNOW/8A
Delays in air quality inspections, permits could pose health risks
5.8 percent of all permits
behind as of July 2017
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — State auditors say
that a backlog in permits and inspec-
tions at the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality “endanger
the state’s air quality and the health
of Oregonians.”
DEQ is responsible for moni-
toring and regulating emissions
from industrial sources and
enforcing violations. The depart-
ment also oversees land and water
quality.
But nearly a quarter of air
quality permit renewals were
behind schedule in the past decade,
according to the audit. Overall,
about 5.8 percent of all permits
were behind as of July 2017.
But some types of permits have
more severe backlogs than others,
with 43.1 percent of the agency’s
larger and more complex permits in
“backlog status.”
And there’s also a delay in
inspections of industrial sources
of pollution. This could mean
that those businesses are out of
compliance and potentially emitting
harmful levels of pollutants.
But auditors weren’t able to
identify the size of the total inspec-
tion backlog because DEQ, which is
divided into three regions, doesn’t
track inspections agency-wide.
Those delays could pose serious
risks to environmental and human
health in Oregon, auditors said.
Air quality permits specify how
much and what types of emissions
a business is allowed to emit in
accordance with state and federal
laws and rules.
Certain air pollutants can have
See DEQ/8A