NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Landfill emitting mercury with no oversight, competitor alleges
says that’s an unfair advan-
tage that will allow the Arling-
ton landfill to take away cus-
tomers and turn Oregon into a
magnet for mercury-contami-
nated waste.
TD*X was fined by the
U.S. EPA $788,000 in 2012
for operating in a manner
similar to what Oregon is
allowing in Arlington. The
company installed addi-
tional pollution controls and
must limit how much mer-
cury-laden waste it takes in.
Now TD*X has launched
an effort, including a 202-
page research paper, to
ensure the Arlington facility
faces the same restrictions it
does some 2,000 miles away
on the Gulf Coast.
Jackie Lang, a Chemical
Waste Management spokes-
woman, said mercury is “not
present in high concentra-
tions in the waste we’re man-
aging and recycling,” which
comes from petroleum refin-
ery storage tank bottoms.
Jennifer Flynt, an Oregon
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality spokeswoman,
By ROB DAVIS
The Oregonian/OregonLive
Oregon regulators are
letting a landfill operator in
Arlington send poisonous
mercury into the air without
the environmental controls
that companies face in other
states, a leading competitor
alleges.
Chemical Waste Man-
agement’s landfill accepts
hazardous waste from oil
refineries and heats it up in
a process that reclaims oil,
which can be resold. If not
strictly controlled, process-
ing oil waste can also release
mercury, lead, arsenic and
hydrochloric acid.
When
the
Oregon
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality approved an air
pollution permit for the oil
operation in 2016, it con-
tained no mention of mer-
cury or limitations on how
much the plant can process.
Neither does a separate haz-
ardous waste permit cur-
rently under review.
TD*X Associates of Texas
Photo contributed by Waste Management
The Columbia Ridge Landfill and Recycling Center is
located south of Arlington in Gilliam County.
said the Arlington landfill is
in compliance with the law.
In a written statement, she
said her agency concluded
the Arlington landfill wasn’t
subject to the same rules as
the Texas facility because
they are “different in critical
ways.”
She did not explain how
they are different.
Mercury is a poison that
accumulates in fish and
poses well-known threats to
human health. The landfill
in Arlington is seven miles
from the Columbia River, at
the center of land ceded by
tribes to the United States in
their 1855 treaties.
The state environmen-
tal agency has dealt lightly
with mercury polluters in
the past.
Nearly a decade ago, the
Oregon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality came
under intense scrutiny for
going easy on an Eastern
Oregon cement plant, allow-
ing it to release poisonous
mercury into the air with lit-
tle oversight or restrictions.
At other hazardous waste
oil recyclers in the coun-
try, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency cracked
down during the Obama
administration,
levying
huge fines to force compli-
ance with federal hazardous
waste laws and requiring
strict pollution limits.
But now, under Presi-
dent Trump’s EPA, Oregon
has been allowed to interpret
those same federal hazard-
ous waste laws to allow the
Arlington landfill to avoid
Forecast for Pendleton Area
BRIEFLY
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Clouds breaking
for sun; smoky
Smoky with
clearing
Breezy with hazy
sunshine
Sunshine and a
few clouds
Partly sunny
86° 57°
91° 64°
81° 51°
81° 55°
84° 53°
84° 56°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
88° 56°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
88° 51°
92° 56°
95° 65°
ALMANAC
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Seattle
80/56
82/61
Tacoma
89/53
Aberdeen
Olympia
87/58
Yakima
91/51
Moses
Lake
Pullman
87/53
80/51
Kennewick Walla Walla
86/61
88/53
Lewiston
94/58
Astoria
87/59
Portland
Hermiston
95/63
The Dalles
88/51
Enterprise
Pendleton
La Grande
Salem
96/58
John Day
Eugene
Bend
97/55
82/51
84/54
LOW
82°
86°
106° (1897)
63°
57°
38° (1916)
PRECIPITATION
HERMISTON
Ontario
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
Yesterday
Normals
Records
85°
87°
105° (2009)
57°
57°
38° (1929)
Today
(in mph)
Caldwell
87/58
84/43
0.00"
0.03"
0.13"
5.13"
6.65"
6.05"
WINDS
87/56
Burns
0.00"
Trace
0.27"
6.49"
11.37"
8.22"
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
98/55
HIGH
Yesterday
Normals
Records
PRECIPITATION
83/51
96/60
Corvallis
81/50
86/57
94/58
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
86/50
Longview
84/57
PENDLETON
Spokane
Wenatchee
89/61
Wednesday
NNE 6-12
NNW 6-12
Boardman
Pendleton
SW 4-8
WNW 4-8
97/62
Klamath Falls
85/47
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Aug 26
Sep 2
New
6:03 a.m.
7:53 p.m.
5:08 p.m.
1:36 a.m.
First
Sep 9
Sep 16
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown are noon positions
of weather systems and
precipitation. Temperature
bands are highs for the day.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 113° in Needles, Calif. Low 30° in Walden, Colo.
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
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Copyright © 2018, EO Media Group
Pilot Butte faces
lengthy rehab
after July 4th fire
Police seek 3 men
in assault over
Confederate flag
BEND (AP) — Reha-
bilitation of the base of
Pilot Butte in Bend is still
underway about six weeks
after an illegal firework
ignited a fire that ravaged
the area.
The Bend Bulletin
reports Bend resident Alan
Joseph Stout illegally lit
the firework on the Fourth
of July, sparking the fire
and forcing nearby resi-
dents to evacuate.
The fire knocked out
power for a large portion
of the city.
Susan Bethers, park
manager for the Tumalo
management unit of the
Oregon State Parks and
Recreation Department,
which oversees Pilot Butte,
says the rehab will be a
long process.
Bethers says the dam-
age included dozens of
scorched junipers on the
butte, a destroyed informa-
tional kiosk located near
the park’s main trailhead
and a damaged irrigation
line running underground
near the park’s base trail.
BROWNSVILLE (AP)
— Linn County authori-
ties say a black teenager
was assaulted at a country
music festival after he crit-
icized a Confederate flag
three men were waving.
Sheriff Jim Yon said
Monday that the men were
driving through the camp-
ing area of the Willamette
Country Music Festival in
Brownsville waving the
flag from a newer-model
black Ford truck when the
18-year-old victim spoke
out.
One of the men got out
and hit the victim several
times before fleeing. He
has not been found.
The victim was treated
for non-life threatening
injuries.
Linn
County
Lt.
Michelle Duncan says
authorities are investigat-
ing whether the incident
qualifies as a hate crime.
The suspect had dark
hair and was wearing jeans,
a black muscle shirt with
the sides cut, brown boots
and a black cowboy hat.
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Full
Last
Medford
-10s
strict controls.
The move has concerned
the Columbia River Inter-
Tribal Fish Commission.
Environmental groups are
also worried, saying they
are shocked to see what hap-
pened at the cement kiln
playing out yet again.
“I don’t trust that the state
knows how much mercury
could be coming out of this
facility,” said Mary Peveto,
president of Neighbors for
Clean Air, a Portland non-
profit. “The state again
seems to be complacent.”
In response to ques-
tions from The Orego-
nian/OregonLive, an EPA
spokeswoman said the fed-
eral agency “will be work-
ing with Oregon DEQ, the
lead agency, to evaluate this
facility and ensure it is per-
mitted correctly.”
Carl Palmer, a TD*X
managing partner, said mer-
cury is an inescapable con-
taminant in oil refinery
waste and other oily sources
accepted by hazardous waste
landfills like Arlington.
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
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110s
high
low
Judge blocks order to kill
wolf pack to protect cattle
By NICHOLAS K.
GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE — A Wash-
ington state judge has issued
an emergency order block-
ing the state from killing
members of a wolf pack that
have been preying on cattle.
The Department of Fish
and Wildlife had announced
Monday morning that it
would immediately begin
efforts to kill members of
the Togo wolf pack who had
been preying on cattle in
Ferry County near the Cana-
dian border.
Members of the Togo
pack have preyed on cat-
tle three times in the past 30
days and six times in the past
10 months, which exceeds
the state’s threshold to take
action, the agency said.
But two environmental
groups filed a lawsuit chal-
lenging that decision, and
a Thurston County Supe-
rior Court judge on Monday
afternoon issued an order to
temporarily block the hunt.
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A hearing on the matter was
set for Aug. 31.
In a news release, agency
director Kelly Susewind
said the department planned
to shoot the wolves from
helicopters or on the ground.
“The evidence shows that
non-lethal measures have
not been successful, and the
pack will continue preying
on livestock unless we take
action to change its behav-
ior,” Susewind said.
The agency uses a pol-
icy of incremental removal,
killing one or a few wolves
at a time.
The Center for Biolog-
ical Diversity and Casca-
dia Wildlands immedi-
ately sued, contending the
order to kill wolves failed
to undergo an environmen-
tal analysis.
“It’s outrageous that
Washington wildlife offi-
cials want to kill more
wolves from the state’s
small and recovering wolf
population,” said Amaroq
Weiss of the Center for Bio-
logical Diversity.
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