OREGON
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
The headlines that cried ‘Agent Orange’
Although not the feared
Agent Orange, those her-
bicides can be harmful in
large quantities, especially
to fragile ecosystems.
Lisa Anderson of Blue
Mountain Divers was one
of the people who found the
barrels. She’s a military vet-
eran whose training famil-
iarized her with the mili-
tary herbicide. So when she
saw the label, she knew she
had to report it to the EPA,
and sent in a preliminary
report. But for health-re-
lated reasons, it took 10
months for the EPA and the
divers to meet and to con-
firm the report. In the mean-
time, Blue Mountain Divers
posted another video saying
they’d found barrels labeled
with Agent Orange ingredi-
ents. And those words were
the ones that appeared in
headlines when the story
got picked up locally and
nationally.
William Lambert, who
was also on the dive when
they found the barrels, was
surprised that the story took
off.
“I knew that either the
barrels were intact, or that
whatever was in them was
long gone,” he said, and
even if something was leak-
ing, he thinks it would have
been diluted pretty quickly.
“Wallowa Lake is a big
lake.”
But the damage was
done. When hotel owners
got calls from concerned
tourists, they weren’t asking
about “2,4-D.” They were
By ERIN ROSS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
JOSEPH — It’s been a
tense month in Joseph. The
town of just over 1,000 res-
idents usually bustles with
tourists in the summer. Nes-
tled at the edge of a prairie
in the Wallowa Mountains,
it’s known for bronzework-
ing, rodeo, hunting and out-
door recreation.
But for the better part of
a month, the town in Ore-
gon’s northeastern corner
has been associated with
something else: the toxic
herbicide Agent Orange,
which the military used
liberally during the Viet-
nam War. National head-
lines suggested barrels of
Agent Orange were found in
nearby Wallowa Lake.
Joseph went viral. Hotel
owners started receiving
calls asking if the lake was
safe. Staff worked to reas-
sure visitors, and while
many tourists still made res-
ervations, others canceled
theirs. “Agent Orange” and
“Wallowa Lake” were even
trending on Twitter in Port-
land, 300 miles away.
But there was never any
evidence of Agent Orange
in the lake — even any bar-
rels labeled “Agent Orange.”
And then last week, gov-
ernment tests showed that
the lake’s water was free of
any chemicals and was safe
to drink, a relief to residents
of Joseph, who draw their
drinking water there.
Residents of Joseph just
EOMG Photo/Ellen Morris Bishop, File
Two EPA workers retrieve the “OverPack” containment barrel that contains the first barrel
brought to the surface — the 2,4-D or 2,4,5-T barrel noted by Blue Mountain divers in fall
2018. Upon close inspection this herbicide barrel had been open to lake water for quite a
while, and did not contain any noticeable amount of chemicals.
want the whole thing to end:
They’re tired of answering
tourists’ questions about a
toxic lake that isn’t toxic,
and probably never was. So
how did the story get so out
of control?
“It was surreal. We were
getting calls from people as
far away as Alaska asking
if we were OK, if there was
Agent Orange in our water,”
says Becky Rushton, owner
of Joseph’s Indian Lodge
Hotel.
Rushton is also presi-
dent of the local chamber
of commerce, so she knows
when Joseph makes national
news. Last year, Joseph
was featured in a New York
Times story touting the
area’s quaint hotels. This
year, Joseph’s (unsubstan-
tiated) Agent Orange scare
made the national political
publication The Hill, and
even Russia-owned pro-
paganda network Sputnik
News wrote about the toxic
fears.
Rushton says locals have
always regarded their lake
as clean, and knew that
empty barrels used to be
dumped in it or used as flo-
tation devices. The lake is
tested for certain herbicides
regularly, and had never
tested positive.
“I was never overly con-
cerned about it,” says Rush-
ton, “But I was worried
about business and rumors.
Once a rumor gets started,
it’s hard to stop.”
So, the facts: Divers did
report finding at least one
barrel labeled “2,4-D or
2,4,5-T”. Both 2,4-D and
2,4,5-T are herbicides that,
when combined at maxi-
mum strength with a few
other chemicals, create
Agent Orange. But barrels
labeled like this would con-
tain lower concentrations
of one of the two chemicals,
not both. While 2,4,5-T
has since been banned
in the United States,
2,4-D is still available for
agricultural use.
asking about Agent Orange.
In the meantime, the
EPA began documenting
and removing barrels from
the lake. They found five:
one labeled “2,4,D or 2,4,5-
T”, one labeled “Hosp” and
one labeled “Diesel.” They
also removed two other bar-
rels that looked like they
might be intact. They were
full of lakewater. The EPA
also tested water from the
barrels, from the town’s
drinking supply, and from
the sediment at the bottom
of the lake. All came back
clean.
While the EPA was on
site last month, recreation-
ists continued to use the
lake. (“It was full of people
fishing,” Anderson says.)
But two visitors to Rush-
ton’s hotel left after heading
to the lake and seeing the
EPA hazmat team. “They
said, ‘You know, we’re just
gonna move on. We’d like
our money back.’”
It’s unclear what kind of
economic impact the barrel
scare is having on Joseph’s
summer tourism season.
“It’s been slower than
normal,” Rushton says.
“But that might just be
the weather. I know other
properties have had can-
cellations. It’s a very sad
situation.”
Most
hotels
opera-
tors that we spoke with in
Joseph reported a few can-
cellations, but they also said
they’ve been busy. All said
guests have called in, con-
cerned about rumors.
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