OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, March 4, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
Former employee Last: Despite having more residents,
Polk County still comes out ahead
sues Columbia
Basin Bioscience
Continued from Page A1
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HER MISTON — A
Umatilla County resident
is suing a local agricultural
operations for $300,000,
claiming the company fired
her in retaliation for making
a complaint to government
agencies about health and
safety concerns.
According to the lawsuit,
Ja Ne ssa P rew it t wa s
employed by Columbia
Basin Bioscience, an indus-
trial hemp farm and process-
ing facility in the Hermiston
area, and also did some work
for Columbia Basin Onion, a
onion grower and processor
also owned by Alan Cleaver.
The complaint claims that
Prewitt, an evaporator oper-
ator, learned that ammonia
tanks at her work site were
leaking. It states that she
was also exposed to other
gases, including nitrogen,
and hemp dust, but “was not
fit-tested or given an appro-
priate respirator mask.”
The lawsuit lays out
multiple dates on which
Prewitt became ill with
symptoms including nausea,
vomiting, dizziness and
shortness of breath while at
work, and states that when
she sought medical treat-
ment, the doctor who exam-
ined her expressed concern
that her symptoms may be
from ammonia exposure
and encouraged her to take
steps that included wearing a
respirator while at work. The
doctor provided documenta-
tion for her employer about
needs for accommodation on
the job due to her continuing
health problems.
As the sit uation
progressed, the lawsuit states
that Prewitt filed for work-
er’s compensation and filed
a complaint with OSHA,
and that when an OSHA
inspector arrived, “due to
the nature of the complaint,
it was evident to everyone
that Plaintiff was the source
of the complaint.” It states
the building was evacuated
for an ammonia leak during
the course of the inspector’s
visit.
It also states that her
employers found out she was
planning to file a complaint
with the Bureau of Labor
and Industries after she was
allegedly told that she could
be accommodated with an
office job that fit her doctor’s
recommendations but was
instead sent to work on an
onion processing line.
On July 17, 2020, the
lawsuit states, Prewitt was
told she could either volun-
tarily quit or have her
employment terminated, and
when she declined to quit,
her employment was termi-
nated. The lawsuit states that
Columbia Basin Bioscience
“discriminated and retal-
iated against” Prewitt for
“opposing an unsafe envi-
ronment.”
Christina Stephenson,
the attorney representing
Prewitt, said in an email that
as the case moves forward,
“we look forward to the
transparency and account-
ability that only the courts
can provide.”
The lawsuit states that
the plaintiff is seeking
$300,000 in compensatory
damages, which includes
non-economic and economic
damages, and that she will
ask the court to allow her to
seek punitive damages as
well.
After the East Oregonian
reached out to Columbia
Basin Bioscience, employee
Steve Williams said the
company denies the alle-
gations of wrongdoing but
had no further comment on
ongoing litigation.
on the front lines and are
exposed.”
The letter points out that
Umatilla County, as well as
Morrow and Malheur coun-
ties, have each received low
vaccine allocations despite
having some of the highest
COVID-19 infection rates.
The counties hold the
three highest COVID-19
testing positivity rates in
Oregon, and only recently,
as case counts have declined
on average, have the counties
been lowered in the state’s
coronavirus risk categories.
As of March 2, the counties
ranked last (Umatilla), third
to last (Morrow) and fifth to
last (Malheur) in the state’s
vaccination rankings.
The letter argues that the
state is failing at its promises
of delivering the vaccine to
vulnerable minority commu-
nities, noting the three East-
ern Oregon counties have
some of the highest percent-
ages of Hispanic and Latino
populations in the state.
“This is not due to a lack
of capacity to vaccinate our
residents. We have never
even tapped the upper limits
of our vaccine allocations,”
the letter says. “While equity
is high on Oregon’s agenda,
this is an embarrassing and
inexcusable contradiction.”
County health officials
have long said that Umatilla
County’s Hispanic and
Latino population has been
hit disproportionately hard
throughout the pandemic,
but have resisted publishing
data showing this. Approx-
imately 28% of Umatilla
County’s population is
Hispanic or Latino, accord-
ing to U.S. Census data.
“Our Hispanic commu-
nity was hit very hard,” Joe
Fiumara, Umatilla Coun-
ty’s public health direc-
tor, said. “Especially in the
food processing and essen-
tial worker, frontline work-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Registered nurse Laurie Post prepares doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during a
Umatilla County Public Health drive-thru vaccination clinic at the Pendleton Convention
Center on Jan. 28, 2021.
ing categories. It’s still my
contention that, that’s where
most of the spread has
happened in this county.”
Par t of the reason
Umatilla County has not
received as many doses
as other counties is due to
its comparatively small
Phase 1a population, which
includes health care and
frontline workers, Fiumara
said. He added the county
has consistently been able to
exhaust its vaccine supply
when allocated, and the low
numbers “are not for lack of
trying.”
In the March 3 meeting,
Umatilla County Commis-
sioner Dan Dorran noted
Polk County has vacci-
nated residents at a signifi-
cantly higher rate than
Umatilla County despite
having a similar popula-
tion. The county has nearly
1,800 more residents, but
has vaccinated nearly 1,000
more people per 10,000 resi-
dents than Umatilla County.
“This is not an issue of
capacity by the county to
administer vaccination,”
Murdock said. “We could
administer way more vacci-
nations than we’re able to at
this time. But it continues to
be a major problem with the
county being supplied with
adequate doses in order to
keep up.”
Umatilla County health
officials have previously
estimated that, if provided
with ample doses of vaccine,
the county has the resources
and staffing to vaccinate
more than 2,000 people each
week.
But for months, the
county has been plagued by
delayed shipments due to
factors like a lack of federal
vaccine allocation and
inclement weather, forcing
the county health depart-
ment to cancel or postpone
events multiple times.
In upcoming weeks,
however, Fiumara said
Umatilla County’s vaccine
allocation could continue
to increase due to its large
essential workforce, which
will soon become eligible,
thereby bringing larger allo-
cations to the county per the
state’s rollout plan.
“We’re already trying to
figure out how many migrant
workers we’re talking about,
how many food processors
we’re talking about, where
are they at and how are we
going to connect with them,”
he said. “Because we know
at the end of the month
they’re going to be eligible.
And we don’t want to wait
until then to figure out how
we’re going to connect with
them.”
Allocated doses are also
expected to increase at vari-
ous stores throughout the
county, Fiumara said. Places
like Bi-Mart, Walmart, Rite
Aid, Safeway and Mira-
sol could each be seeing
increased doses, and new
shipments of the Johnson &
Johnson vaccine are begin-
ning to arrive in the county,
providing some hope that
more residents will be vacci-
nated soon enough.
“It’s still not enough, for
right now,” Fiumara said.
“But it is starting to look
like the point of, ‘We have
more vaccine than we can
get people to come take it,’
is approaching closer and
closer every week.”
Lawsuit: ‘I just want to be made whole’
Continued from Page A1
East Oregonian, File
An Aeryon Scout unmanned aerial vehicle flies over a field
off of McCormmach Road on Sept. 30, 2014, north of Pend-
leton.
Exemptions:
Continued from Page A1
only range in Oregon that
had to comply with public
records law.
W hile none of the
committee members seemed
opposed to the bill, some
senators pointed out that
some of their requests were
already duplicated by exist-
ing exemptions and wanted
to know what specifically the
city wanted to protect from
public disclosure.
Chrisman declined to
delve into specifics, but he
did say UAS companies
wanted “peace of mind”
when looking to protect
their information, something
Senate Bill 315 would afford
them.
“I would prefer not to
have to get into the nuanced
arguments of law in the state
of Oregon, when I’ve got lots
of other competition that I’m
competing against in other
places,” he told the commit-
tee. “I just want to get them
to Oregon because I think
it’s in the best interest of
Oregonians, if we can get
this industry, this new and
exciting technology, to come
to Oregon and we enjoy the
benefits of that.”
The city is also arguing
that the Oregon Legisla-
ture has previously granted
public records carve outs for
other municipal projects, like
the Klamath Regeneration
Project in Klamath Falls.
In an email, City Attor-
ney Nancy Kerns, who
helped draft the language of
the bill, agreed that the city
could theoretically block any
public records disclosure
related to the UAS range as
long as it could argue that it
could cause a competitive
disadvantage for the range
or its customers.
The only person to speak
out against the bill at the
hearing was Tom Holt, a
lobbyist for the Society of
Professional Journalists, who
argued that the language of
the bill was too broad.
In an interview after the
hearing, Hansell said he
believes the city is seeking
the public records exemption
in good faith, but because
of the SPJ’s concerns, he
was encouraging the city to
work with the editors from
the East Oregonian to come
up with a compromise.
Whatever solution the two
sides arrived at, Hansell said
he was confident the result-
ing bill would easily pass
through the committee and
the Legislature.
has always been the coun-
ty’s, and the Waines had
built their fence and other
improvements on county
property in error.
Doug Olsen, attorney for
Umatilla County, said in an
email that the county cannot
discuss an ongoing lawsuit.
The Waines named the city
of Hermiston in the lawsuit
as well because the road lies
in the city’s urban growth
boundary, and city attor-
ney Gary Luisi also said the
city declined to comment on
ongoing litigation.
In a response to a request
by the Waines for the court
to grant an injunction
against the Airport Road
project, Umatilla County
responded that all surveys
of the corner are in agree-
ment with the county, with
the exception of a 1973
survey by David Krum-
bein, which the county said
Krumbein later determined
was wrong and corrected in
1980.
“The Northeast corner
monumented by the pins
set in 1954, 1980 and 1991,
is the location being used
by the County as the center-
line of Airport Road and the
road improvement project,”
the court document submit-
ted by the county states.
Chris Waine said things
aren’t so clear cut, however.
For example, the Waines’
memorandum in oppo-
sition to the defendants’
motion for summary judg-
ment states that the 1954
survey conducted by James
Higgins describes a half-
inch-wide steel pin set in the
ground as a monument to
mark the northeast corner of
the property. The document
goes on to argue that an iron
pipe the county considers to
be the Higgins monument is
not, in fact, the monument
Higgins placed, and does
not mark the correct loca-
tion of the right of way.
The Waines’ lawsuit,
filed in March 2020, asks for
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Chris Waine speaks with Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan as county surveyor Matt Ken-
ney records the location of a trio of supposed property markers on April 23, 2020.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Chris Waine holds a metal tag that he found near what he
believes is a charred post, a historical property marker,
after construction crews began grading the road surface
along his contested property line on April 22, 2020.
the title to their land to be
cleared of the survey records
they believe to be errone-
ous, a permanent injunc-
tion keeping the county off
of what the Waines say is
their property, an award of
“costs and reasonable legal
fees” and any other relief the
court deems equitable. An
emergency injunction halt-
ing construction was also
requested but was denied
last year.
Chris Waine said he’s
not trying for a “huge” cash
settlement in addition to
resolving the issues with
the land title, just reim-
bursement for his family’s
ongoing legal costs and for
the fence he had to install
after the county removed his
original fence to complete
the paving project.
“I just want to be made
whole,” he said.
Waine said he does hope
that the entire incident also
sparks some reform for
Umatilla County and the
city of Hermiston. His prop-
erty isn’t the only one where
boundary lines are in ques-
tion, he said, and those land-
owners also deserve a clear
procedure for resolving
issues, such as conflicting
surveys or lost monuments.
“It’s kind of a mess and
I think the county needs to
have a protocol in place,” he
said.
After Judge Eva Temple
denied the motion for
summary judgment on
Feb. 19, clearing the way
for the lawsuit to proceed
in Umatilla County Circuit
Court, Waine said both
sides are now preparing for
a three-day trial scheduled
to start July 6, 2021.