Category Archives: Toxic Chemicals

Toxic exposure against our will

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Roundup, the herbicide that contains glyphosate, has gotten a lot of international press in the past week.  And none of it is good news for us living beings who are exposed to Roundup in our food and in the environment. The use of a chemical known to bring about serious harm, especially by the government and industry, is a form of chemical trespass; it is toxic exposure against our will.

A peer-reviewed study conducted by researchers at MIT concluded that Roundup has a “negative impact on the body [that] is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.”

Specifically, Roundup has been linked to endocrine disruption and cell death, Parkinson’s, infertility and a variety of cancers.

Beyond Toxics conducted a 2013 study of what herbicides were purchased and applied on public and private lands all over this state. During a press conference at the State Capitol in March, we revealed our findings showing that Oregon government takes $2.5 million of State Lottery funds every biennium and gives the money away in “weed grants” for the purchase and application of toxics pesticides.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, was the most commonly used product. Picloram, a known ground water pollutant and carcinogen, was the second most frequently applied herbicide.

These publically funded projects have focused exclusively on applying harsh chemicals.  This is no way for our state government to support public health! And it’s arrogant to spend public dollars on chemicals that are known to be toxic to our reproductive system.

Beyond Toxics has asked the Department of Agriculture to require the development of an integrated pest management plan (IPM) before doling out public funds for weed sprays. HB 3364, legislation that passed in the Oregon House and is on its way to the Senate, will require IPM as the science-based standard for pest management.

In discussions with folks around the state of Oregon about their home gardens, I’ve often heard people say that they “just spray a little Roundup, because it is barely harmful.”   Be careful – all ‘cides’ – including herbicides and insecticides – are designed to kill living things by disrupting normal cell function. Roundup causes DNA damage.

Just because any of us can buy Roundup off the shelves in any nearby garden and hardware store doesn’t mean that the government knows it is safe.  A case in point, the EPA finally just confirmed, after decades of denial in the face of overwhelming evidence, that formaldehyde and styrene are carcinogens. Formaldehyde and styrene are common in household products (think Styrofoam cups).

There is a critical connection between our health and what’s in our environment and consumer products.  In Oregon, let’s work together to prevent chemical trespass. As an easy first step, please sign our Safe Public Places endorsement petition.

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

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Doctors Say Beyond Toxics’ Proposal is a “step in the right direction”

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I want to share an important new statement signed by 15 of our local pediatricians supporting HB 3364, Beyond Toxics’ bill to protect kids, elders, and our fragile ecosystem from pesticides!

In a letter to the legislature dated 3/18, the PeaceHealth doctors wrote:

“We are pediatricians who …vigorously support the passage of this bill and think it is past time that the state take a proactive stance in protecting the public and in particular our children from the known toxic effect of exposure to pesticides…”

Good on our local pediatricians! Let’s applaud their strong and vocal stance to protect children!

The Lane County Medical Society has also taken a clear “support” position on HB 3364 as well. Doctors know that pesticides are, by their nature, designed to cause death to living things. The risk of harming children is very well documented. Here are some examples:

Let’s get behind our doctors and support their knowledge and advocacy on behalf of children’s health!

Please take just a minute to commend doctors for speaking up to help pass HB 3364 by sending a letter to the editor of your local paper. The public needs to hear more about this important issue so that support for sensible, science-based legislation to protect children from pesticides on public lands can pass this year! You, as a member/follower of Beyond Toxics, can make such an important impact by sharing your beliefs and values. I truly thank you for stepping up and speaking out!

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

 

City tries to find pesticide substitute Beekeepers and environmentalists say the use of one treatment may kill bees

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Photo by Bev Veals, 2012

Beyond Toxics initiated the Friends of Healthy Bees Campaign in 2012 in partnership with local bee keepers.We are excited about the initial results of this collaborative effort! Beyond Toxics and our bee keeping partners, provided information to the City of Eugene about how the use of pesticides are harming our pollinators and presenting risks to children and families in parks. Below you can read more about the City’s plan to stop using neonicotinoids and pursue efforts to support pesticide-free parks!

See the Consumer Pesticide Products with Neonics Sold in The U.S. (to save honey bees, do not use in your garden!) | “Neonicotinoid” defined

City tries to find pesticide substitute Beekeepers and environmentalists say the use of one treatment may kill bees
BY EDWARD RUSSO, Eugene Register-Guard (March 18, 2013)

Eugene city government will try to cut the use of a pesticide suspected of killing honeybees.

At the request of bee­keepers and environmentalists, the city will seek to find an alternative to the neonicoti­noid pesticide it has used to kill bugs on downtown flowers. City officials also have asked the contracted manager of municipally owned Laurelwood Golf Course to find a substitute for the pesticide.

Beekeepers and the Eugene-­based environmental group Beyond Toxics say European studies show that the pesticide kills honeybees, and they have taken their concerns to city officials, including the City Council.

Eugene beekeeper Philip Smith said bees that alight on flowers treated with neo­nicotinoids don’t die right away.

“It doesn’t kill on contact,” he said. “But it accumulates and after not too many trips, that’s it for the bee.”

The city uses a neo­nicotinoid, Imidacloprid 2F, to kill aphids and thrips on downtown flowers.

City Facilities Director Jeff Perry, who oversees the division that maintains the downtown flowers, said his department is looking for alternatives to the pesticide.

“What we have found is that the baskets require extra attention to maintain and generally require more insecticides, such as Imidacloprid,” he said. “It is challenging, but we are looking for effective alternative solutions.”

The management firm at Laurelwood Golf Course early last year used the pesticide to control grass-killing grubs, said Kevin Finney, the city’s parks operations manager. But the firm said it had no plans to use the pesticide this year, he said.

Smith and Beyond Toxics Executive Director Lisa Arkin said the city’s interest in finding alternatives to the pesticides is a right step.

But both also said the city should ban use of the pesticide on its properties.

A study released in January by the European Food Safety Commission identified health risk for bees from three neonicotinoid insecticides, Clothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam.

Several garden supply stores in the United Kingdom have voluntarily stopped selling the pesticides, Smith said.

Organic alternatives to the pesticides exist, he said, including insecticidal soaps made with Neem oil.

Beekeepers and Beyond Toxics are asking local stores to stop carrying neonicotinoid pesticides. “We are working to educate local garden supply stores about the harm of neonicotinoids,” Arkin said.

“We would like them to at least label these products as harmful to bees so people can at least make an informed choice.”

The city’s response to the concerns were mentioned by Finney on Wednesday at a council meeting that reviewed the city’s “integrated pest management” policy.

The policy guides the city’s parks and open spaces and facilities divisions in controlling weeds and pests on city property.

Under the 30-year-old policy, the city is supposed to try to control troublesome plants and pests without herbicides or insecticides. If those methods don’t work, low-toxicity pesticides are to be used.

“The goal of the integrated pest management policy is not to eliminate the use of pesticides,” Finney said.

“It’s to use the least toxic approach. It requires you to go through a process where you will try the most cost effective, least toxic methods first.”

The city already has established no-pesticide zones around certain park features, including playgrounds, picnic areas, dog parks, swimming and wading pools, spray-play areas, and storm­water catch basins and inlets, Finney said.

Also, eight Eugene parks are pesticide free, designated that way because residents volunteer to pull weeds from time to time.

Residents also must be willing to accept that the parks may contain more weeds than if herbicides were applied, Finney said.

The city is willing to work with residents to create more pesticide-free parks, he said. “The best way for them to get their park into the program is for them to form a group of committed folks who then would go to their neighborhood association and get its support for the effort,” he said.

Arkin, of Beyond Toxics, said all city parks should be pesticide free.

“It’s an equity issue,” she said. “It’s not fair for a parent in the Bethel area to have to drive all the way to Washington Park in south Eugene to make sure their child plays in a safe park. Parents should be able to take their child to any park and know their child is safe.”

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MORE about the Healthy Bees campaign

Walking The Path to Environmental Victory in Oregon

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Photo by Carla Hervert

I’m writing this from the inner sanctum of the State Capitol building – the 4th floor of the Oregon House of Representatives.  It’s Tuesday, and in only three days on March 8th, Beyond Toxics supporters will join me to walk these hallways and talk with elected leaders.  It’s our day to discuss better pest management policy, more tracking and accountability and, as a result, pesticide reduction. What’s our goal? A healthier world. How are we going to do it? Show up, speak up and work for change.

Beyond Toxics is making impressive headway to passing the Safe Public Places Act, but we can’t do it alone!  WE NEED EVERYONE’S GOOD ENERGY AND PARTICIPATION!  (See who’s already supporting the bill here – and sign on now!)  As environmental advocates, you and I are saying to our legislators … please work hard to pass laws that protect kid’s health, bees, and salmon. The Safe Public Places Act (known in the Capitol as the State Integrated Pest Management bill) will set a new and welcomed standard for strong government policies on toxic chemicals (and a higher respect for the values of human rights and precaution).

Beyond Toxics is a member of the Oregon Conservation Network – the consortium of environmental groups with OLCV working to pass good environmental protection laws. OCN is supporting the Safe Public Places Act!  The OCN staff and environmental lobbyists who stand up for environmental protection laws at the State Capitol deeply appreciate your dedication!  They know the incredible sacrifice of taking a whole day to make environmental health a top issue in the State Senate and House!

It’s not too late to sign-up to go with us!

As you walk the hallways of the inner sanctum, they’re going to be giving Beyond Toxics’ volunteers big smiles and high fives to thank you!  You are the true grassroots, intrepid, and ethical voices and faces of what matters most – Oregonians committing to going beyond toxics.

See you bright and early on Lobby Day – March 8.

Truly, Lisa Arkin

 

 

Social Change Requires Heart

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On this Valentine’s Day of affection, I want to express my gratitude to our members and volunteers. Knowing that you care keeps me traveling back and forth to the State Legislature to talk to elected leaders about pesticide use reduction. You give me the daily fortitude to deliver the message that Oregonians can, and must, be leaders in the fight to reduce pollution in our bodies and the environment. Believe me, that message isn’t always well received by state lawmakers – they require a lot of convincing! So, with you in mind, I continue to knock on their doors and explain how they can help protect Oregon from harmful chemicals.

When I’m fighting for sensible policies to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, I’m always thinking of our members, like Heidi, who is a new volunteer helping us plan our March 8 Lobby Day in Salem. Heidi works full-time and has a three-year old daughter. She wants to be able to take her little girl to playground without worrying about pesticides sprayed on lawns and pathways.

Today I think of Lynn, who pays many hundreds of dollars to the Oregon Department of Forestry to get notices of pending helicopter pesticide sprays in rural Lane County. Lynn brings this information to her rural neighbors so that they can take steps to protect their farm animals and “shelter in place” during these military-style aerial spray operations. She cares because she knows these practices pollute homesteads and salmon streams alike.

Today I recall the dozens of rural residents south of Bend whose wells were poisoned after the County sprayed all the roads in their sub-division with a highly toxic herbicide. I shiver when I remember that this chemical, used to defoliate jungles during the Vietnam War, is now in their baby formula, soup and coffee!

These are real stories from real Beyond Toxics members. Our members want us to be strong advocates for laws that put environment at the heart of what we do in Oregon.

Volunteers make all the difference to inspire and create real power! So please join me and many others on the morning on Friday, March 8 – Beyond Toxics Lobby Day at the State Capitol – to present our case to state government for heart-centered justice in the land we love.

And, when we pass the Safe Public Places law, I promise we’ll all have a massive party to celebrate the vision of one small non-profit with really fabulous and caring members!

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

MORE about the Safe Public Places Act

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Coal trains and beloved local spots

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The coal industry wants us to believe that coal exports are inevitable, and that supporting continued mining and burning coal is our destiny. I would argue that a beautiful community and renewable energy future is our destiny, and obsolete coal is the doom and desperation of Big Dirty Coal.

Coal train tracks near River Road neighborhood

How will the proposed arrival of coal trains in Eugene and West Lane County impact our communities? I’ve thought of a few local landmarks that will be in the path of the coal train. I would enjoy reading what others think – what places are dear to you that will be impacted by four or more coal trains every day?

The Oregon Country Fair is a special spot that might suffer a tourism crisis if a coal trains passed within a few dozen yards. We’d see coal dust instead of fairy dust on those dancing, semi-naked bodies. The sound of screeching coal trains passing by eight times each day (round trip) would be unwanted percussion to the nightly jam sessions.

And sweet little Veneta. Last week, as I was having dinner at Our Daily Bread restaurant right off Highway 126, I chatted with another person about the coal trains. We both eyed the rail road tracks a few hundred yards from the restaurant. “I’m worried about what the noise and dust would do to our businesses here in Veneta,” the woman said. “A lot of people I know don’t want a coal train, but no one in Veneta has spoken out.”

One of my best friends and her husband routinely take their canoe out to Warren Slough, part of the Fern Ridge’s corridor of channels that lead through a very special wildlife viewing area. To get to the fishing areas south of the Reservoir, a canoe will have to pass directly under the rickety train trestle. Any coal dust spoiling a wetland, lake or stream would boost the acidity of the water and introduce heavy metals and pollutants that would, in turn, threaten aquatic life. As a consequence, the birds (and the people) that feed on the local fish would be harmed.

Trainsong Park, near the train tracks, is just one of many locations that would be impacted by coal train traffic

Here are just a few other landmarks that have meaning for me…

• Steward Ponds – a protected wetlands only .6mi from the coal train track.

• Peterson Community Center – site of many community events, classes and sporting activities. Barely .6 mi from the coal train track.

• Greenhill Humane Society – dogs and cats that already have some trauma in the their lives would be subjected to train whistles and the heavy rumble of the train day and night – only .5mi separates the animals from the tracks.

• The Fern Ridge Bike Trail actually crosses the train tracks, so that if you are out for a pleasant bike ride and some exercise, you can take in a lung-full of diesel particulate and coal dust too!

I agree with Eric de Place from the Sightline Institute who put the coal train issue so well, “I think you’re looking at a sort of degraded Northwest that doesn’t look like the kind of Northwest we’ve seen in the past. The region has not been a heavily fossil-fuel-dependent economy ever in its history … all of a sudden (it would will be) very much embedded in the economy of the coal industry.” A degraded Country Fair and Fern Ridge Reservoir is not the vision I have for my community.

What’s your vision? What places do you care about? Please share with me.

And please join us this Saturday to march in the Eugene Celebration Parade. Our theme is “Raise the Roof! King Coal and the Fossil Fools.” We need lots of folks participating to make a big impact. We’ve got costumes! Just show up!

Read more about how to find us!

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

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Victory for small (and honest) non-profits in the battle against the giant (and manipulative) coal industry!

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Beyond Toxics and No Coal Eugene talk to Mayor Piercy at Coal Protest

Beyond Toxics and No Coal Eugene talk to Mayor Piercy at Coal Protest

In spring of this year, Beyond Toxics submitted a Public Records Request to the Port of Coos Bay to learn the details of plans to haul coal through Eugene for export to nations in the Far East? Remember that they demanded $22,000 to get what should be public information? If that wasn’t enough, the Port of Coos Bay tacked on a long list of intrusive questions, demanding the disclosure of our members’ names and addresses.

This week, a Coos Bay judge ruled that non-profits like Beyond Toxics and Sierra Club do not have to obey the demands of the coal industry by turning over the names of our members! The Port of Coos Bay’s excessive inquisition of small non-profits was thrown out of court!

This important victory is just one step along the legal path to give the public all the facts about hauling dirty coal through the Columbia River Gorge, the Willamette Valley, and out to the coast via downtown Eugene. Both the Oregon Sierra Club and Beyond Toxics filed records requests and were answered with back-breaking fees and aggressive demands. Sierra Club filed a claim that there is a pattern and practice of subjecting public requesters to invasive questioning, and pointed out it had also happened to Beyond Toxics. Both groups are awaiting the outcome of the case to proceed with our public records request.

The Port has been and continues to be secretive and dismissive of public inquiries on coal exports. It is highly doubtful that the Port or their coal partners will release the requested documents before the Eugene City Council meets to vote on the issue on September 10.

In a new twist, on July 9, the Port of Coos Bay asked the Eugene City Council to approve a resolution they (or probably their lawyers) wrote, specifically stating “Be it resolved by the City of Eugene that The City strongly supports the use of the Coos Bay rail line for the movement of freight in western Lane, western Douglas and Coos counties…” and furthermore that “The City will work with the Port and other regional and transportation stakeholders to identify and recruit additional opportunities for the development of rail…”

Why should residents of Eugene support the dirty, destructive and polluting coal industry? Why should we agree to foul our air and poison our lungs, and destroy climates by burning more fossil fuels?

Do you want to stand up to Dirty Coal? Then join us in the Eugene Celebration Parade where we will march as King Coal and the Fossil Fools! We need a big group!  To sign up, send an email to info@BeyondToxics.org. Let’s show Big Dirty Coal where Eugene stands when it comes to envisioning a clean energy world!

-Thanks for standing with us,

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director

 

Stopping coal: A renewed moral imperative

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For children who live near the train yards, coal trains would be an added health risk burden

I want to be clear: I am not against trains (I often travel by passenger train)! I am, however, critical about using our rail system to haul coal to coastal ports and then load the coal and ship it off to Asian destinations. And justifiably so! Besides the significant safety issues posed by rail shipment of massive amounts of coal, we should consider the certainty of grave health problems we will have to address.

It is already true that health problems associated with polluted air occur in our community. Beyond Toxics has engaged with community health issues in the River Road, Trainsong and Bethel neighborhoods for many years. Recently we completed a community health survey in West Eugene. A striking pattern emerged. We found that 30% of the nearly 350 households we interviewed believe that at least one family member suffers from asthma. A 2006 study by State of Oregon did find a higher than expected number of lung cancers in this area. But more research needs to be done.

What do we know about the relationship between health hazards and the transportation of coal?

By the numbers
Let’s begin with words straight from a Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Rail Road research document they posted on their website. The document is called Coal Dust-Frequently Asked Questions and it addressed the question, How extensive is the coal dust problem?

“Since 2005, BNSF has been at the forefront of extensive research regarding the impacts of coal dust escaping from loaded coal cars … From these studies, BNSF has determined that … The amount of coal dust that escapes from Powder River Basin coal trains is surprisingly large. …BNSF has done studies indicating that from 500 lbs to a ton of coal can escape from a single loaded coal car. Other reports have indicated that as much as 3% of the coal loaded into a coal car can be lost in transit. In many areas, a thick layer of black coal dust can be observed along the railroad right of way and in between the tracks. … large amounts of coal dust accumulate rapidly…”

So let’s do the math. Multiplying the amount of coal projected to arrive at the Port of Coos Bay, which is 6 – 10 million tons per year, by BNSF’s suggested 3% product loss, this calculation suggests that coal trains would release as much as 300,000 tons of coal dust along its journey through Oregon. That is an immense amount of highly toxic coal dust every day of the year!

Due to the extreme weight of a coal train and its length of 125-150 cars, four to five locomotives are required to haul it. Therefore each train passing through Eugene has at least four times the emission pollution due to diesel particulate of a single-locomotive train.

Each train that comes through Eugene on the way to the coast must make a return trip over the same rail line. The communities along the tracks will get repeated exposure to the pollution, the noise and traffic jams for each coal train.

Health Issues
Remember that the health impacts from air pollution are from the two sources: coal dust and diesel particulate. The health impacts from both are similar enough that we can discuss them together as a related set of very debilitating health outcomes.

There’s strong evidence that diesel is a lot more poisonous than other types of particulate matter because emissions also contain toxic metals and carcinogenic hydrocarbons. The World Health Organization has declared diesel particulate to be a carcinogen. Over 40 studies have linked diesel exhaust to lung cancer, as well as cancers of the bladder and soft tissues. However, there are no federal standards specifically for diesel emissions.

Though it would be enough to raise our outrage if this issue just affected the areas closest to the train tracks, this is not a localized problem for people living in the Trainsong, or River Road neighborhoods. Pollution from coal trains would become a citywide hazard.

Extensive and costly studies of the health impacts to nearby communities has been done by the California Air Resources Board at many of California’s rail yards. The additional risk of cancer from breathing or absorbing toxic diesel particulate is increased to 25-100 times over the normal risk of getting cancer. Any resident living within 2 miles of the railyard is in a zone considered to be an unacceptable cancer risk (CA Air Resources Board).

What does that mean for us?

There are 27 schools within a 2-mile radius, 14 daycares and a number of senior living residences. A dramatic increase in coal train traffic through Eugene means significantly increased health risks for young children and adults alike!

The coal industry spends millions to sway Americans to give their support for more coal, euphemistically calling it “clean coal.

This is a public relations deception so, let’s not be fooled…the environmental and health costs necessary to mine it, transport it, burn it, and dispose of its waste make “clean coal” the equivalent of “happy heart attacks” or “friendly carcinogens.”

As writer Kathleen Dean Moore, a Distinguished Professor at Oregon State University, put it, “We have a moral obligation to avert future harms, so as to leave a world as rich in life and possibility as the world we inherited.”

Any way you look at it, coal should not be part of Oregon’s future. We have a duty to stand up and say, NO!

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

See the Stopping Coal in Oregon home page for more background on the issue

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A Day of Protecting our Local Watershed

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I was amazed that when I woke up this morning, my back and shoulders weren’t very sore, just my forearms. That was after a full day of watershed restoration work near Fish Creek, one of the salmon habitat streams in the Siuslaw Watershed in Western Lane County.

A few of the 17 volunteers who stepped forward: 5 employees of Mountain Rose Herbs, 10 residents of the community and 2 volunteers from Beyond Toxics, including Carlos Barrera (far right).

I had spent the day – with sixteen other dedicated folks – pulling and bagging invasive weeds because we want to keep our watersheds pesticide free. Ten were residents from Triangle Lake who care deeply about the health of the people in their community; five were from our fabulous supporter and business partner Mountain Rose Herbs and two from Eugene (including me)!

Did you know that Oregon’s state and local governments sprays thousands of gallons of fish-killing pesticides along every highway and byway? This old pesticide-dependent paradigm is supposed to make a “vegetation free zone.” Imagine the hundreds of thousands of miles of the public’s right-of-way poisoned throughout the spring, summer and early fall, year after year! Everything underneath the spray nozzle of the pesticide truck becomes blackened vegetation and dead soils, a place that is only hospitable to more invasive weeds. The invasives grow back quickly and continue to spread, which creates a never-ending cycle of counterproductive practices and bad outcomes. The new paradigm involves removing only the invasive vegetation – mechanically with mowers and cutters and by hand.

No Spray Zones encourage beautiful, beneficial plants to flourish.

These are No Spray zones. Our public right-of-way is kept pesticide-free and the good vegetation is encouraged to grow. Yesterday, I saw wild daisies, native grasses, lupine, Oregon grape and many other beneficial plants. These beautiful plants are needed for several reasons: as animal habitat, to crowd out any invasive weeds and to filter the pollution coming off roadways.

There are three No Spray model projects in our State, all supported by Beyond Toxics. In Lane County, we have the No Spray project on Highway 36 in the Triangle Lake valley. In Lincoln County, our friends Concerned Citizens for Clean Air maintain 25 miles of Highway 101 without the use of pesticides. Our supporters in Williams, Josephine County hold the annual Williams Mow Day, keeping pesticides out of the Williams River, which feeds into the Wild Illinois.

Your community could also start a No Spray project to protect your local streams and rivers! It only takes a couple of days per year, but the results are impressive. Check out the pictures (above) of what a No Spray scenic corridor looks (left) like compared to the Pesticide Poisoned zones (right). Let’s move Oregon away from the killing paradigm to an exemplary life-supporting model for the nation!

Perhaps you live near one of Oregon’s county and state roads that have been built in scenic corridors, like the Siuslaw River, McKenzie River, the Santiam River, the Pudding or the Rogue River. Beyond Toxics can support you if you’d like to start a No Spray model project in your community! Just give us a call (541-465-8860) or email us! Together we can keep pesticide poisons from seeping into our precious watersheds, the source of our drinking water and the habitat for Oregon’s native fish.

Shade cloth laid near Horton Road as part of a pilot project to control a dense patch of noxious weeds.

If you are a business owner, you can help sponsor these projects by assembling employee work parties and making a donation to cover the cost of supplies. Horton Road Organics farm, for example, sponsored the shade cloth (see photo above) that we are using to kill invasive weeds on Highway 36 near Horton Road!

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director

As if a wall of chemical gas is enveloping us…

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“When we take our children to the playground, the smell of
chemicals overwhelms us. We can’t stay outside.
It’s awful … as if a wall of chemical gas is enveloping us.”

This is how one young mother described what it is like to live across the street from a chemical company in West Eugene. She spoke to over 75 people who attended Beyond Toxics’ Environmental Justice Bus Tour (the first-ever in Oregon). They met her in Lark City Park in Bethel where she takes her children to play.

Last week, Beyond Toxics hosted dozens of people who boarded two school buses and journeyed out (see the map of the route the bus tour took) to visit several key toxic hot spots, like Lark City Park, where air and ground water pollution harms Eugene families every day.

Travelers included:

  • Mayor Kitty Piercy,
  • City Councilors Andrea Ortiz and George Brown, and Lane County Commissioner Rob Handy
  • Bethel School District Superintendent Colt Gill and members of their staff,
  • Many local organizations
  • Staff from city, county and state agencies and the EPA,
  • UO students and equal numbers of West Eugene residents.

Bus travelers gathered at Lark Park to hear residents testify to everyday exposure to dangerous toxic chemicals.

You might ask me, what was the purpose of our Environmental Justice Bus Tour? Beyond Toxics set out to demonstrate that we need a set of air toxics solutions based on a notion of justice, and not just a weak regulatory system. We did this with both facts and with the voices of vulnerable residents. I am proud that we were able to show that Eugene does have an Environmental Justice community because we don’t talk about this much in the public discourse. These residents are not able to enjoy their equal right to clean air and water and receive special consideration for children and pregnant women who are most at risk for harm.

I felt one thing that became very clear during the bus tour is that Eugene is actually two different communities, two different worlds of experience. Many people on the bus had never seen the row of air and water polluters along Roosevelt Avenue (hidden behind trees and frontage buildings); and they had never considered what it must be like to raise a family less than one block from some of the nation’s most notorious polluters (e.g., JH Baxters). In fact, link to this NPR Report on worst polluters and see what it is like in Eugene!

When we drove our bus north on NW Expressway, I described the scenario of coal trains entering Eugene’s rail yard to park and switch tracks – the length of one train would take up nearly the stretch of road hugging the west side of the River Road neighborhood. If coal trains are allowed to come to Eugene, there will be coal dust over gardens, on cars, coming in windows, and choking the lungs of very child in Trainsong and River Road neighborhood.

I was also struck by the look of realization on the faces of the travelers as we drove down Prairie Road and Highway 99, while adding up the cumulative exposures to some very dangerous air toxics. We learned that 99% of all the air toxics in Eugene are located in the Bethel 97402 zip code area – according to the Eugene Toxics Reporting system, about 500,000 pounds of airborne chemicals every year.

I saw the look of panic on some faces when we did an exercise (right there on the bus) showing how it feels to have an asthma attack. Some of the people on my bus said it felt like they were drowning from lack of air. I hope the data and the experience got people thinking –is it time to factor the intensity of daily exposures to these asthma triggers into a public health plan?

Beyond Toxics pointed out that Envision Eugene, the plan to expand Eugene city limits, recommends building new homes, schools and parks across the street from creosote factories, biomass plants, chemical manufacturers and sawmills (a distance of about ¼ to ¾ mile). I hope that people thought about the need to pay more attention to siting homes and schools near heavy industrial sites.

There will always be debates about the costs of protecting health versus the costs of doing business. An Environmental Justice bus tour attempts to get us past these arguments.

Our Environmental Justice Bus Tour overcame doubts and arguments by using both local data and the voices of local residents to expose the underbelly of Eugene’s toxic Industrial Corridor. We are calling on our City to hear the voices of the disenfranchised residents –Spanish and English alike. We need to put those voices at the forefront of decision-making processes on land use, air protection and public health.

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director, Beyond Toxics

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