APRIL 15,2012
Smoke Signals 7
Ferguson joins Salem Health Board of Trustees
SALEM Rodney Ferguson,
chief executive officer of Spirit
Mountain Casino, has been ap
pointed to the Salem Health Board
of Trustees.
"Rodney's leadership skills as
the chief executive officer of Spirit
Mountain Casino will add value to
the board, as well as his technical
skills as a CPA, and his former
positions as a chief financial officer
and an auditor of hospitals," said
Salem Health Board Chair Ken
neth Sherman Jr. "His experience
will complement that of the other
members of the board."
Ferguson, who lives in McMin
nville, is a member of the board of
directors for Boys and Girls Club of
Salem, Marion and Polk Counties
and the McMinnville Area Cham
ber of Commerce.
Spirit Mountain Casino is a busi
ness enterprise of the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde Community
of Oregon.
"I believe that serving on boards
Rodney Ferguson
and assisting
other organiza
tions in achiev
ing their goals
is an important
role for CEOs,"
said Ferguson.
"As CEO of
Spirit Moun
tain Casino, the
largest employ
er in Polk County, I feel compelled
to assist Salem Health wherever I
can add value to the organization
that services the community in
which I work.
"I know many people who have
experienced exceptional service
from Salem Health. My goal is to do
whatever I can to assist in ensuring
continued quality of service on a
consistent basis and help meet the
needs of Salem Health."
Ferguson joined Spirit Mountain
Casino as its chief executive officer
in October 2008. Previously, he
held executive management roles
with Isleta Casino and Resort,
Hyatt Gaming and Trump Casino
Resorts.
In 2003, Ferguson joined Isleta
Casino and Resort in Albuquerque,
N.M., as chief financial officer until
he was promoted to the position of
general manager in 2005. During
his more than five years at Isleta,
he helped transform a stand-alone
casino into a full-service resort that
included a 27-hole golf course, family
entertainment center with a bowling
alley, music park and campground
facility, as well as a recently opened
four-diamond-level hotel and con
vention center, which won the 2008
Hospy Award for Best Boutique
Hotel and Best Hotel Lobby.
Originally from Williamsburg,
Va., Ferguson began his career in
1978 in Philadelphia, Pa., as an
auditor for Coopers & Lybrand. In
1983, he entered the gaming indus
try in Atlantic City, N.J., and held
various positions in financial man
agement for Harrah's, the Golden
Nugget and Trump Plaza before
starting an accounting practice in
1991.
In 1994, he returned to gaming
in New Orleans as chief financial
officer for River City Casino and
from 1995 to 1999 he was chief
financial officer for Trump Casino
and Hyatt's Grand Victoria Casino
& Resort, both in Indiana.
From 1999 to 2003, he provided
financial and accounting services
for Jefferson Wells International in
Cincinnati, Ohio, and Philadelphia.
He also served as a sole practitioner
in Newport News, Va.
Ferguson received a bachelor's
degree in accounting from Virginia
State University in 1978.
Members of the Salem Health
Board of Trustees are volunteers
who serve three-year terms. The
board provides overall policy set
ting for the health system, and is
ultimately responsible for the qual
ity of care and the financial well-being
of the organization. D
Group submits cleanup scenarios for Portland Harbor
Tribe will review plan,
concentrate on environmental,
human health components
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
PORTLAND The Lower Willa
mette Group, a coalition of compa
nies and government agencies that
will in large part be paying to clean
up the Portland Harbor Superfund
site, submitted a 500-page draft
feasibility study with 15,000 pages
of supporting material on March 30
to the Environmental Protection
Agency that included 10 possible
ways to clean up a 10-mile stretch
of the lower Willamette River from
Sauvie Island to the Broadway
Bridge.
The group has spent almost $100
million over 12 years studying the
complex river system that rests in
the ceded homelands of the Confed
erated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
The cleanup proposals include
some combination of dredging, cap
ping, treating and monitoring of the
most toxic areas. Countless years
of monitoring are recommended
for sites that are not completely
dredged. The recommendations
suggest that natural processes
alone will heal some areas.
The group's 10 cleanup propos
als range in cost from $169 mil
lion to $1.72 billion, and all call
for reduction of the worst toxins
to EPA standards. For PCBs, the
worst of the toxic threats, the EPA
requires no more than 1 part per
million.
Five of the proposals focus on
dredging, suggesting that as much
as 80 percent to 90 percent of the
area, or more than 300 acres, is
dredged. Five of the proposals pro
pose less of the area be dredged in
combination with the other cleanup
options. The lowest cost option pro
poses 23 acres be dredged. The more
dredging required, the more expen
sive the cleanup option will be.
During the next two years, EPA
will evaluate the 10 proposals, ac
cept public comment and issue a
Record of Decision that will describe
who pays, how much they pay and
what they have to get done.
Grand Ronde Tribal Staff Attor
ney Ryan Sudbury said the EPA is
likely to strike deals with most of
the potentially responsible parties
before issuing its decision.
"This is difficult to do without a
cooperative party," said Chip Hum
phrey, project manager of the Port
land Superfund site for the EPA, at
an April 11 public' meeting held at
the St. John's Community Center
to discuss the proposals.
The Tribe's response will emerge
from the work of Natural Re
source's Ceded Lands Program
Manager Mike Karnosh, Environ
mental Resource Specialist Bran
dy Humphries, Sudbury and the
Tribe's Boulder, Colo.-based techni
cal adviser, Stratus Consulting.
"As a general philosophy," said
Karnosh, "the Tribe doesn't want to
limit any cleanup proposal or res
toration proposal by saying, 'Here's
the number of what we want.' "
What the Tribe does want, Kar
nosh said, is to see a level of cleanup
that is protective of the environ
ment and human health so Tribal
members can use the area as they
traditionally have.
Over the next 60 to 90 days, the
Tribe will prepare comments on the
report, as well as recommendations
for the final cleanup decision, said
Sudbury.
Stratus will do the first level of
review and that will go to Tribal
staffers, Sudbury added.
"Stratus will report what it be
lieves the Tribe can support and
ways to improve the document;
they'll point out questions that need
to be clarified, assumptions that we
don't agree with or need more infor
mation about," Sudbury said.
There also will be an overarching
legal review.
The Superfund law, the Compre
hensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act,
enacted in 1980 "is one of the most
complicated environmental laws
in the country, by a wide margin,"
said Sudbury.
EPA in Washington, D.C., says
that the Portland Harbor Super
fund site is "one of the most com
prehensive and extensive efforts
ever in the Superfund program's
32-year history."
In addition to some 150 potential
ly responsible parties, the cleanup
involves six Tribal governments,
the Oregon Department of Environ
mental Quality, federal National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin
istration, and federal and state fish
and wildlife agencies.
"At the same time, the Grand
Ronde Tribe continues to work as
a Natural Resources Trustee to ad
vance projects that will help restore
the species and ecological services
affected by the toxic releases," Sud
bury said.
Oregon's congressional delegation
took a tour of Portland Harbor last
year and wrote to EPA Administra
tor Lisa Jackson afterward.
The letter, signed by Congress
men Kurt Schrader and Earl Blu
menauer and Senators Jeff Merkley
and Ron Wyden, said: "As EPA
performs its evaluation, it is im
perative to consider the economic
impacts of EPA's decision on our
community. In this time of limited
resources and budget constraints,
it is particularly important that
we focus resources on cleanup
measures that provide the greatest
public health and environmental
benefit.
"Indeed, President Obama has
focused efforts on reviewing regula
tions that are of questionable merit
and on outcomes and results. We
applaud those efforts and believe
the Portland Harbor conversation
about cleanup options should be
focused on where this point of di
minishing returns lies."
At the April 1 1 public meeting,
Blumenauer said that he was look
ing for federal funds to fill in for
funding that used to be provided by
a fee on the petrochemical industry.
A Republican Congress allowed
that fee to lapse in 1995.
"The federal government is miss
ing in action on this," he said.
Industry has long held that en
vironmental regulations hurt jobs
and the economy. Karnosh said that
the cleanup efforts can produce jobs
as it improves the environment.
The EPA agrees. According to the
Public Affairs office in Washington,
D.C., "Industry often claims that
environmental protection activities
cost jobs. However, our experience
shows that Superfund has posi
tive economic impacts including
cleanup-related job creation and
job creation attributable to the
subsequent redevelopment of a
former site."
Last year, Tribes worked in con
cert to convince the EPA to improve
Oregon's water quality standards,
which are now the toughest in the
country by fivefold, Karnosh said.
The new standards use new hu
man health criteria based on an
increased fish consumption rate to
better protect Native Americans
and others who eat more fish than
the general population.
The difference means that Oregon
permits allowing toxic releases will
have limits that keep waterways
cleaner.
"Oregon has taken a lead in say
ing we need to protect our people
from fish-borne toxic chemicals,"
said Karnosh. "It's a huge, good
start."
But even bigger changes poten
tially lie ahead.
With public comment on industry
proposals still ahead, Tribal people
know that salmon and steelhead
spend part of their young lives
among the toxic environment down
at the Willamette River's bottom
before making their way up the
South Yamhill River to Agency
Creek, home to the Grand Ronde
people, and many other Willamette
River tributaries in the Tribe's
ceded lands.
The EPA's Record of Decision is
currently expected late in 2014. D