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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: SPRAY DAYS RETURNING Roseburg Forest Products leads the pack in herbicide spraying in the patchwork of private forestlands southwest of Eugene, according to an independent compilation of data provided by the Oregon Department of Forestry. The compilation was done by the Forestland Dwellers No-Spray Group (FDNSG), a small local organization dedicated to reducing or even eliminating the use of toxic chemicals in areas where air drift or groundwater migration has a potential impact on people, domestic plants and animals. March is when spraying of logged forestlands usually begins in earnest, and the spraying is done by helicopters, trucks along roads, or by hand, using backpack sprayers.
"The timber companies claim their practice of 'chemical pruning' is a matter of dire economic necessity," says Lynn Bowers of FDNSG. "The truth is aerial spraying costs $60 an acre and it costs $90 to $100 an acre to do it by hand." She figures the local timber economy would get a boost by employing young people to do manual But a spokesman for Roseburg Forest products says aerial spraying of herbicides can cost as little as $30 an acre. "Hand remediation costs can run much, much higher," says Dan Newton, manager of land and timber for Roseburg, "and in many cases it's less effective." Newton says blackberries and scotch broom, for example, grow back quickly after manual cutting. Bowers lives on rural Fox Hollow Road outside Eugene and was featured in an EW story last year (see archives 4/1/04) after she and other residents organized to protest aerial spraying of Oust, Transline, Lv6 and other herbicides that could drift or otherwise migrate to local water supplies in the area, including the town of Creswell two miles away from the spraying. The new data for 2004 shows Roseburg spraying 24,400 acres in the Long Tom Watershed, followed by Weyerhaeuser spraying 10,000 acres, Swanson 4,300 acres, Seneca Jones 3,700 acres, Transition 2,000 acres, Giustina 780 acres and Roseboro 750 acres. Bowers says no state or federal laws require private forestland owners to notify residents in the area about spraying, but residents can pay an annual fee of $5 per section to get on an Oregon Department of Forestry spray notification list. But she says the notification doesn't say what will be sprayed, only lists possible products that might be sprayed. She urges rural landowners near private timberland to join the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (www.pesticide.org),talk to neighbors, get on notification lists, call timber companies to get specific information on spraying, and lobby lawmakers to restrict or even ban aerial spraying of toxic materials. "Herbicide use is increasing in the forests," says Bowers, despite a long-standing ban on spraying BLM forestlands. She blames clear-cutting ("You don't have to spray if you don't clearcut," she says), disregard for local residents' health by some timber companies, and aggressive marketing of herbicides by manufacturers' salespeople. Newton says Roseburg follows state forestry guidelines for all its spraying, "and we take every effort to protect the water and adjacent property owners. Our objective is to renew the forest with native conifers using the safest and the most effective treatment possible. And we believe that in many cases that is through the judicious use of herbicides." As an example of timber company responsiveness, Bowers praises Roseboro Lumber of Springfield for only using herbicides as a "last resort" and providing larger buffers when requested between spray areas and private properties. "Roseboro has agreed to 500-foot buffers," she says, "and if you're going to spray at all, that's probably pretty reasonable." — TJT
RALLY CALLS FOR ENDING ED CUTS A mass rally in support of education is brewing for noon Monday, Feb. 21 on the steps of the State Capitol in Salem. The demonstration is being organized by Stand for Children (SfC) and is cosponsored by a broad coalition of education, business and activist groups. Buses are being organized from around the state, including a bus from Eugene. Contact Stand for Children at (503) 235-2305 or e-mail rally@stand.org According to the Legislative Revenue Office, Oregon today spends $611 less per pupil than in 1992, when adjusted for inflation. Gov. Kulongoski's 2005 education report indicates that his $5 billion budget for K-12 will result, for many districts, in bigger class sizes, a shorter school year, less help for the students who need it most, and stagnation in achievement gains. "The message from all of the sponsoring organizations will be the same; we simply can't stand by and watch while Oregon's schools face further erosion from inadequate funding," says rally organizer Jonah Edelman of SfC. "The rally will call on legislators to meet their constitutionally mandated responsibility to Oregon's school children." The Oregon Business Association is one of the sponsors. "As business leaders, we understand the interdependence between a great education system and a healthy economy," says Carl Davis of the OBA and vice president of Columbia Sportswear. "There are reasonable funding sources available that don't require across-the-board tax hikes. Oregon's elected officials must find the political will to support our schools adequately in order to attract businesses and train a productive workforce."
BUSH BUDGET OUT OF TOUCH A coalition of local people and organizations concerned with social services gathered this week in Eugene in response to the Bush administration's release of a budget last week calling for deep cuts in assistance to low-income people. The group, including students from UO and LCC, and directors of Looking Glass, FOOD for Lane County and ShelterCare, released a report Tuesday called, "Communities in Crisis: A Survey of Hunger and Homelessness in America." The report is based on 900 surveys of emergency food and shelter providers in 32 states, including Oregon. "The report shows that hunger and homelessness are increasing in every region of the country while government funding to shelters and food programs is down, forcing many social service providers to cut necessary programs," says a statement from the group. See the full report at www.studentsagainsthunger.org
SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA
Documentary filmmaker and Radio Havana correspondent Bernie Dwyer will be in Eugene next week to show her film Mission Against Terror, as part of a tour sponsored by the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five. The film will be shown at 7 pm Monday, Feb. 21 at 100 Willamette Hall on the UO campus. Dwyer's film examines the case of the five Cubans in U.S. prisons since 1998 for "successfully collecting information to stop terrorism against Cuba." The local sponsor of the event is Solidarity with Cuba!, which developed out of the Cuba Interest Group of CISCAP. Mission Against Terror shows historical footage of terrorism against Cuba and features interviews with Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón, former CIA agent Philip Agee, attorney Leonard Weinglass, Cuban activist Andrés Gómez from Miami, and family members of the Cuban Five. Dwyer is an Irish woman who lives and works in Havana as a journalist. She was previously a lecturer in Women's Studies at University College in Dublin. CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS An editing error changed the meaning of a sentence near the end of our Visual Arts story last week. Here is how it should have read: "Newton, whose other profession entails using GIS-based cartographic databases, also plays with spatial ambiguity." Regarding last week's Happening People, Judy Franzen
tells us her psychology master's degree was actually from International
College, not the UO, but she did get a degree in landscape architecture
Backfire In 1995 Hyundai (now Hynix) came to town with officials promising a clean, high-tech new industry for Eugene. It soon emerged that the "clean" factory would in fact use a flood of toxic chemicals to etch its chips. Citizens called for an accounting of what dangerous chemicals Hyundai would bring to town, but the corporation refused. Concerned citizens gathered 11,000 signatures for a charter amendment, and in 1996 Eugene overwhelmingly passed a Toxics Right to Know (TRTK) measure requiring toxics reporting, and funded by what was viewed as an equitable system of fees. The toxic chemical reporting program would be funded entirely by fees paid by users of large amounts of toxic chemicals (more than 2,640 lbs. a year and 10 or more employees). A TRTK board determined that fees would be based on number of employees and the amount of toxic chemicals used. Having failed to defeat the initiative, the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce and big toxics users sued in state courts. They failed to repeal TRTK altogether, but succeeded in overturning the fair system of fees envisioned by the initiative's authors. At the urging of the Chamber and industry, the court ruled that state law prohibited local toxics reporting laws charging fees based on quantities of chemicals used. The Chamber and big toxics users also went to the state Legislature with an effort to repeal right-to-know. They failed an outright repeal but did succeed in imposing a cap on TRTK fees of $2,000. As a result of the efforts of TRTK opponents, the fee system of the TRTK has changed. Under the legal rulings, businesses that use less than 2,640 lbs. of chemicals are required to pay a fee to support the program even though they are not required to report their toxics. Major toxic chemical users now pay the same per-employee fees as users of far less toxic chemicals. Under the legislative fee cap, small businesses got huge fee increases while big businesses got big savings. Hynix with 1,200 employees saw its fees drop 90 percent (a $15,000 savings), while small business saw their fees more than double. To remedy the system they created with their attacks on right-to-know, TRTK supporters say the Chamber and its big toxics user allies should use their clout in the Legislature to pass a law allowing Eugene to charge the fair fees originally envisioned. The Chamber and big industry created the inequities for themselves, says Mary O'Brien, a local environmental scientist and author of the TRTK charter amendment. "They could easily go to the state Legislature asking that towns be able to fund toxics programs equitably." But Chamber lobbyist Terry Connelly balks at the suggestion saying, "Why would we want to do that?" Connelly says the fee cap for big businesses is a "valuable safeguard." He blames the City Council for not reducing fees by cutting the TRTK program budget and/or using taxpayer money to subsidize lower fees for toxics users. Connelly blames authors of the TRTK for writing a measure with fees that courts ruled violated state law. "It's not the business's fault." O'Brien says the court ruling was an error that hinged on a "bizarre" finding that Eugene's TRTK program duplicated the existing reporting program of the State Fire Marshall. There are clear and substantive differences between the two programs. For example, the local TRTK requires a per-pound balanced accounting of specific chemicals released to the land, air or water, whereas the state program requires reporting of only rough ranges of the quantities of chemical brands stored on site, in case there's a fire. O'Brien says proponents would have appealed the ruling, but attorneys told them the courts would likely defer to the Legislature to fix the problem. But the industry-dominated Legislature is unlikely to act without support from the Chamber and its allies, O'Brien says. The Chamber and industry won't work to fix the inequities because, "the fact is they just don't want the program," O'Brien says. "They're just using the inequities to batter the program." But that approach could also batter the small businesses that the Chamber supposedly serves. To reduce fees while following the right-to-know intent of the charter amendment, the City Council is now considering a proposal to expand reporting to more small businesses, such as dry cleaners, gas stations and car painting shops, to spread out the costs. At a Feb. 14 hearing, 13 people spoke in favor of TRTK and expanding the program, while 10 people spoke against the program and its expansion. Businesses said right-to-know was a waste of money for them. But supporters said businesses shouldn't be allowed to sneak dangerous chemicals into the local environment. Eighth-grader Evan Arkin told the council, "I want to know what I'm breathing in."
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