REGION
Friday, June 28, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
Supporters rally for AWOL Republicans
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Sup-
porters gathered at Roy
Raley Park on Thursday
afternoon to cheer Oregon’s
11 fugitive senators.
The Senate Republicans
skedaddled last week to pre-
vent a vote on cap-and-trade
legislation that aims to limit
greenhouse gas emissions.
A couple dozen people dis-
played signs and sported
red Trump 2020 hats. “Stay
Gone Reps,” said one sign. A
dog sported a red cape that
proclaimed “Keep America
Great.”
The driver of a Ford
pickup honked his agree-
ment as he cruised by. A Bud
Light truck honked even
louder. Someone in a red
sedan slowed, read the signs,
shook his head and sped off.
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath-
ena, was one of the law-
makers who traveled out of
state to prevent a quorum for
the vote. As the Pendleton
group rallied, Hansell said
by phone that he was back in
the state.
“The governor has lifted
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Two supporters of Republican senators who fl ed Salem last week to avoid voting on a climate
bill display signs to passing motorists during a rally Thursday at Roy Raley Park.
the call for the state police
to try and fi nd us,” he said.
“I’m back in Oregon.”
He said he fl ew to Cali-
fornia to see a new grand-
child and then to Boise to
meet with some colleagues.
He paused when asked when
he and his fellow senators
will return to the Capitol.
“It’s still under dis-
cussion, but I’m optimis-
tic things are proceeding,”
he said. “We’re in negotia-
tions. A news release is com-
ing most likely tomorrow
(Friday).”
He said reaction from his
constituents has been “over-
whelmingly supportive.”
With more than 100 bills
that need votes before mid-
night on Sunday, the clock is
ticking, especially since the
senators again failed to show
for the Thursday morning
fl oor session.
Supporters started a
GoFundMe
campaign
titled Encourage the Walk-
ing Senators for “traveling
expenses, expenses needed
while out of state, or unlaw-
ful fi nes imposed by Kate.”
The word at the rally was
that a better way to donate
was through the Oregon
Republican Party website
where donations would help
pay senators’ $500 fi ne for
each session missed.
Gov. Kate Brown sent out
a steely statement earlier this
week.
“This is not the Ore-
gon Way and cannot be
rewarded,” Brown said in
her statement. “The Repub-
licans are driving us away
from the values that Ore-
gonians hold dear, and are
moving us dangerously close
to the self-serving stalemate
in Washington, D.C.”
Those at the rally, how-
ever, felt the exodus from
Salem was a good strategic
move. Marla Schad, of La
Grande, said it was the only
way to ward off a bad bill.
“I’m against cap and
trade,” she said. “It’s going
to hurt loggers, truckers,
farmers — anybody who
uses lots of fuel.”
Her friend Toni Baldas-
sarre nodded. She wore bur-
lap hatband she made her-
self with the word Trump
cross-stitched in block let-
ters. Her shirt proclaimed
“Trump 2020: the sequel.
Make the liberals cry
again.”
“I think Trump is doing
a wonderful job,” she said.
In reality, the bill seems
to already dead. On Tues-
day, Senate President Peter
Courtney conceded the cli-
mate bill because it lacked
the votes to pass even if the
Republicans returned.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0810.
Hearing on big power line
project draws little local interest
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
EOMG Photo/Ellen Morris Bishop, File
An “intact” barrel removed from Wallowa Lake by the EPA-contracted dive team Global Div-
ing and Salvage hangs above the oversized containment barrel that encased it before divers
removed it from the lake.
Lab results show Wallowa Lake free
of herbicide barrel contaminants
Barrels were
discovered
last August by
recreational divers
By ERIN ROSS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
JOSEPH — After almost
10 months of waiting, res-
idents of Joseph can feel
more confi dent drinking
their water and swimming
in nearby Wallowa Lake,
according to lab test results
released Thursday.
The town, located in Ore-
gon’s northeast corner, had
stopped drawing drinking
water from the lake 15 days
prior, when the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency
fi rst began investigating a
number of barrels found
at the bottom of the lake,
thought to contain toxic her-
bicides. Test results are back,
and the barrels and lake water
seem to be contaminant-free.
The barrels were discov-
ered last August by recre-
ational divers. In all, there
were 74 drums and barrels,
including one that was labeled
“2,4-D or 2,4,5-T.” Com-
bined at military strengths,
those two herbicides create
Agent Orange, a chemical
defoliant widely used by the
United States military during
the Vietnam War, with dev-
astating, long-lasting con-
sequences for the landscape
and the people who lived in it.
The divers brought the
barrels to the attention of the
Oregon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality after they
were found, but removal
work didn’t begin until June
12 of this year.
As the agency began
removing barrels, it began to
appear that the situation may
not be as bad as divers and
environmental offi cials had
initially feared. The bar-
rel’s label suggested it con-
tained one or the other her-
bicide used to make Agent
Orange — but not both —
and it lacked the orange
stripe used to signify mil-
itary-strength
chemicals.
Most of the barrels were
unlabeled and seemed to be
empty.
The EPA took eight sam-
ples of sediment from the
bottom of the lake where
the barrels were found and
15 samples of lake water.
Eleven of those samples
were from the surface of
the lake, three samples were
from the city of Joseph’s
drinking water plant, and
one sample was from the
water inside the drum with
the herbicide label. All of the
drums tested clean, accord-
ing to the EPA and the DEQ.
PENDLETON — The
public hearing Wednesday
in Pendleton on building a
500-kilovolt
transmission
line across Eastern Ore-
gon drew opposition from
two Umatilla County locals.
Twice that many from La
Grande took the mic to speak
against the Boardman to
Hemingway Project.
Boardman to Heming-
way, or B2H, has been trudg-
ing through local and state
planning processes since
2008. The Oregon Energy
Facility Siting Council the
past two weeks held public
hearings in fi ve Eastern Ore-
gon counties to take com-
ments on the new draft pro-
posals. The hearing last week
in La Grande drew about
200 people with 37 speakers,
according to reporting from
The Observer. The Umatilla
County hearing drew a cou-
ple dozen in all, with the Stop
B2H Coalition in their yel-
low T-shirts making the most
obvious showing.
Jennifer Miller of Herm-
iston and Cynthia Harvey
of Stanfi eld bookended the
speakers expressing con-
cerns or outright calling for
an end to the project.
Miller said she cares about
preserving the old Oregon
Trail, and the transmission
line threatens what remains
of the train.
“The trail is fi nite in how
much there is, and once it gets
ruined, it never comes back
… once it’s been destroyed,
it can never be brought back,”
she said.
Wildfi res from the proj-
BRIEFLY
Deputies arrest
fl eeing driver
East Oregonian
IRRIGON — A car chase
in Morrow County ended
with deputies pulling their
guns and arresting one man.
Matthew James Way, 28, of
Hermiston, now faces multi-
ple charges.
The Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Offi ce reported Dep-
uty Aaron Haak at 9:48 a.m.
Wednesday advised the dis-
patch center he was attempt-
ing to stop a 2009 white Ford
Focus on Highway 730 in Irri-
gon. But the driver, Way, fl ed
the area at speeds reaching 70
mph. Haak took off after the
car, and deputies Oscar Mad-
rigal and Taylor Wasserman
joined the pursuit.
The Morrow County Com-
munication Center informed
the deputies the Hermiston
Police Department took a
report for the car as stolen.
The suspect at one point
turned down a dead-end
street, the sheriff’s offi ce
reported, and Haak stopped
his vehicle in the middle of
the road as a barrier. Way
instead turned around and
sped toward Haak, according
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to the sheriff’s offi ce, “in an
intentional head-on collision
course” only to swerve at the
last moment.
The sheriff’s offi ce also
reported the suspect almost
hit a city of Irrigon vehicle and
put others in the area in dan-
ger. The pursuit lasted 4 min-
utes and ended at West Eighth
Street and Columbia Avenue
with Haak and Madrigal aim-
ing their guns at the driver
ect is another worry, she said,
because of the strain they
would place on local agen-
cies. And she added she has
no interest in giving her tax
dollars to a project that helps
companies sell power to
other states.
Harvey told the council
she bought 1,100 acres this
March in Meacham and later
found out Idaho Power plans
to build fi ve towers on her
land, and neither the power
company nor the Oregon
Department of Energy noti-
fi ed her about the project.
Public hearings and meet-
ings on the line in past years
drew more local interest
and concerns. The planning
departments of Umatilla and
Morrow counties worked
to reroute the line through
an existing power corridor
that runs through the south
of Umatilla County and
along Bombing Range Road
in Morrow County. Uma-
tilla County Commissioner
George Murdock attended
the hearing and said the
dearth of local interest likely
stems from that effort.
In between Miller and
Harvey, the La Grande res-
idents and coalition mem-
bers told the council that
Idaho Power needs to assess
the environmental effects
the construction and mainte-
nance of the line will cause in
forests, better inform private
property owners of what’s
coming, and to take seri-
ously the concerns people
have about how the project
has changed and will change
their quality of life.
Coalition members Irene
Gilbert and Fuji Kreider also
asked the siting council to
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and passenger, and order-
ing them out of vehicle. Dep-
uties detained the passenger
and later released her without
charges.
But they arrested Way for
felony eluding, unauthorized
use of a vehicle, reckless driv-
ing and fi ve counts of reck-
less endangering. He remains
in the Umatilla County
Jail, Pendleton, in lieu of
$50,000 bail.
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push back the deadline for
public comments from the
July 23 deadline. The proj-
ect’s application runs to about
a hundred pages, but includes
dozens of attachments and
exhibits. The council has
been dealing with this for
years, Kreider said, but the
average member of the public
needs more time to read and
understand the documents.
Mark Stokes, the engi-
neering project leader for
B2H, took the stage last to
answer questions from the
council, including about the
lack of notifi cation to Har-
vey. He said the previous
owner should have told her,
but Idaho Power would work
with her, just as it must with
700 land owners for the line
to run between Boardman
and the Hemingway substa-
tion near Melba, Idaho.
The siting council at the
end voted to extend the dead-
line to Aug. 22 at 5 p.m. for
written comments only. The
council wrapped up the pub-
lic hearings Thursday eve-
ning in Boardman.
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