www.EWEB.wtf

www.EWEB.wtf - EWEB completed their clearcut in August, cutting the largest Doug firs (including the 15 foot circumference champion tree) and Ponderosa pines. The largest Black Oaks were cut on August 2 when EWEB clearcut most of this public forest, rushing to destroy just as the state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) issued a temporary stay of execution based on a challenge brought by former EWEB commissioner Sandra Bishop. LUBA lifted the stay on August 17, cutting resumed on the 18th and the champion big doug fir was cut down on the 19th.
Eugene environmental groups stayed silent. They did not dare challenge EWEB's mismanagement that let existing tanks degrade to the point they are unrepairable and are silent about real estate overdevelopment, including future expansions of Eugene to Veneta and Junction City which will need lots of water. They also ignore plans for massive widening of Beltline highway (12 - 14 lanes).
In a democracy the public comment period never ends. Silence is consent.

Letters: Eugene Weakly and Register Guard

October 14 - Eugene Weekly - online version only (not in print edition)

Where were the tree huggers?

In August, EWEB clearcut our publicly owned forest at East 40th and Patterson, the first stage of construction of two 7.5 million gallon water tanks. Last year, EWEB said one tank holding 5 million would be enough.

EWEB destroyed the oldest unprotected forest left in Eugene, including century-old black oaks and Doug firs. The champion fir was 15 feet in circumference. I have before and after photos, forest and stumps, at EWEB.wtf.

Many citizens were upset by this, but Eugene’s fabled environmental groups stayed silent. The only group that objected to this unnecessary deforestation was Southwest Hills Neighborhood Association (SHiNA), which doesn’t have this site in its zone.

EWEB didn’t say why they supersized their plan. So I filed a public records request and received various reports, including discussion of worn-out tanks at College Hill and Hawkins. One report had photos of cracks in the wall. Downhill neighbors are at risk if an earthquake shatters a tank.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone was discovered in the mid-1980s. Despite this knowledge, EWEB did not make repairs to reduce vulnerability to seismic shocks. Now, the Oregon Health Authority warns these tanks are a danger to water quality.

Now that EWEB’s logging is complete, they are removing forest soil in a parade of dump trucks. After that, they will remove the ridgeline by blasting basalt in a residential neighborhood.

If our forest had been cut by Republicans, perhaps Eugene enviro groups might have objected.

The Problem Is EWEB’s Lack Of Transparency

Reader Don French didn’t get much right in his Sept. 9 letter. (“Clean Water or Two Acres of Trees?”) The choice that EWEB had at 40th and Patterson was not just between backup water or trees, but to rush ahead and bulldoze before enough opposition mounted, or hold a public hearing so that all 20,000 rate payers and many thousands more Eugene residents could debate the issue and discuss alternative sites and plans.

These two acres of trees in the southeast — a rare, native oasis of madrone, fir and oak, some as old as the city itself — are not insignificant, as French implies, given the ravages of climate change, overdevelopment and our alienation from nature. The site created a source of cool air, oxygen, biodiversity, water retention, beauty and much more that benefited everyone, not just the people who have homes nearby, most of whom are not elite, as he labeled them.

I met several renters and hardworking homeowners who live adjacent to or within a few blocks of the site who had never been contacted about the project before the whole thing blew up. The lesson that must be played forward here is the need for more transparency, communication and democracy in agencies that make decisions related to our tax dollars and long-term wellbeing.

Run for your life!

As a concerned Eugene resident, fully aware of the vital importance of urban canopy to save lives in the midst of a climate gone berserk, the story immediately caught my attention. What stands out as is where Eugene Urban Forestry Management Analyst Scott Altenhoff says, "If I don't have the understanding and cooperation and have our civil engineers on the same page and our architects ... working toward similar goals, then it's unlikely that we will make headway."

Experts in engineering are willing to sacrifice 300 hundred trees to build a couple of reservoirs just as long as other "experts" stick to their specialty and do not interfere in other experts domain and grand engineering vision. As The Register-Guard reported, EWEB's Joe Harwood said, "EWEB relies on experts, not residents, to make infrastructure choices." For urban forests or canopy, some "experts" have preeminence over other "experts," not all "experts" are equal. As Corinne Le Quere, a contributor to the latest IPCC assessment, warns, who needs experts anyway? "You don't have to have a PhD. You don't have to be a climate scientist. You just need to be a person who looks out the window."

As the trees fell ...

The Southwest Hills Neighborhood Association Board voted 7-0 July 6 to oppose the Eugene Water & Electric Board’s proposed reservoir project near 40th and Patterson.
Our city-chartered neighborhood association of many thousands of households is not close to the forest site — we are not NIMBYs. We do breathe cleaner, cooler air because of the forest to our east. Large Douglas firs are 50% to 60% water by weight.

But local media, including the KLCC news department, refuses to report on the widespread opposition to this mature forest clear-cut based on continued depletion of the Eugene forest canopy. The city Climate Recovery Ordinance and Climate Action Plan 2.0 calls for preservation and increase in mature forest canopy. It also notes Eugene has been losing more and more forest.

More:Eugene moves to slow decline of citywide tree canopy cover
https://www.registerguard.com/picture-gallery/news/2021/02/14/eugene-moves-slow-decline-citywide-tree-canopy-cover/4455763001/

On Monday, 250 trees were cut. The biggest firs are still standing because of a state Land Use Board of Appeals stay against EWEB chainsaws. EWEB has several other viable sites to build storage capacity. EWEB could also adopt the original plan to build one 7.5-million-gallon reservoir rather than two, then rebuild the College Hill site when the new tank comes online.

Strictly the NIMBY type

I would like to address the fact that the Eugene Water & Electric Board’s PR machine has been quite successful in painting any opposition to this industrial project as strictly of the NIMBY type. It is patently untrue that the only opposition to the wanton destruction of the last urban forest within the city comes only from local residents who would bear the inconvenience and disruption of a construction project that may last well more than three years.

If the media wished to report accurately on this issue, obtaining the list and following up on the 21 persons who called during the July 6 EWEB Board meeting would bring to light the true nature of this protest. Of all the customer-owners who testified, not one was in support of the project.

Perhaps no more than a handful who called actually live within a quarter-mile from the designated site on East 40th because so few of them were not even aware of the project less than a month ago.

I know several people who oppose the idea of eliminating a grove of mature 75- to 150-year-old healthy trees in the midst of a catastrophic climate crisis. Make no mistake, they live as far away as the River Road area, Friendly neighborhood, South Hills or Fairmount neighborhood. So much for spin, distortions and smoke and mirrors.

Guest View: Too many questions ahead of massive EWEB project

Eugene Water & Electric Board CEO Frank Lawson's guest view on Sunday failed to address many important questions. Eugene's water supply is highly vulnerable to disruption during an earthquake, fire or other disaster because it relies on a single intake point on the McKenzie River.

In September 2020, the Holiday Farm Fire came within a few miles of EWEB's filter plant near this intake. Had the fire reached the plant, Eugene's water supply could have been shut off.

The two new 7.5-million-gallon reservoirs proposed by EWEB on the hill near 40th and Patterson will provide only one additional day of water storage capacity for Eugene based on current usage. More importantly, it will do little to provide true water security for our community in the event of another major forest fire, earthquake or other disaster. Because our water supply is vulnerable to disruption, developing a second source of water ought to be EWEB's highest priority — even higher than building additional reservoirs.

Four-and-a-half years ago, EWEB proposed building a second plant to filter water from the Willamette River. This plant was to be located in Springfield, not far from where Springfield was planning to build a new filter plant of its own. Since building a plant is costly, EWEB believed that collaborating with the Springfield Utility Board would be the most cost-effective way to proceed with this project. Because, according to EWEB, some SUB staff and board members were not in favor of collaborating, progress stalled.

Surprisingly, SUB general manager Jeff Nelson wrote in a July 29 email to me: “SUB has an existing surface water plant on the Willamette and we suggested that EWEB look at having treatment at that location. SUB has significant property at the Willamette location for treatment expansion.”

Regardless of who is responsible for the lack of progress over the past five years, Eugene remains with neither a second major water source nor even a schedule for developing one.Now EWEB plans to cut down roughly 300 mature trees, then blast the rock underneath for months to create pads for two new “tanks.” The blasting and other construction work will require 15,000 truck trips on city streets, at a cost first estimated to be $19.9 million, then $12 million, and now $25 million, according to a July 30 KLCC story, paid for by municipal bonds that were approved by the EWEB Board and Eugene City Council.

Yes, EWEB has had discussions at some of its board meetings, but these were all virtual meetings,and most of the public was unaware of what was being proposed. Not that EWEB wasn't communicating at all, but few people realized the scope of the pending project slated for Summer 2021. And now it's upon us.

Equally important, EWEB did not consider real alternatives to the two-water tank project on the Patterson Hill, such as building only one water tank there and then reconstructing a 15-million-gallon or larger reservoir on College Hill, or two or more 7.5-million-gallon facilities at this site, or at Hawkins Hill or elsewhere. These are important questions that need to be answered before EWEB embarks on this massive project.

Because a secure source of water is crucial to security of our community, I urge Eugene and Springfield city councilors to help work through obstacles to progress on additional water supplies. Eugene city officials, and all EWEB customers, should also demand answers to the questions raised above about the water tank project.

If no agreement can be reached between EWEB and SUB on a new joint filter plant, EWEB should proceed expeditiously with its own filter plant on the Willamette. The security of our community's water supply is at stake!

Steve Goldman is a retired natural resources program manager. He now teaches nonviolent communication.

No community pride

I support the community’s concerns about the Eugene Water & Electric Board water reservoir project at East 40th Avenue & Donald Street.

What an opportunity to give something special to this community. Unfortunately, EWEB’s reputation as the main perpetrator of community and neighborhood visual blight suggests EWEB cannot be trusted.

EWEB’s history is to focus on engineering and neglect design. And there is a radical difference. Engineering is about calculating water needs and the technology of installing tanks. Design is making the place where they’re located into a community asset. The question isn’t about one tank or two or trees. It’s about how the overall site design serves and graces its neighbors and community. It’s this lack of trust in EWEB’s ability to imaginatively satisfy multiple aspects and users that warrant the present concerns. Single-purpose design solutions lack imagination and do not build community pride.

If EWEB, as a community resource cannot move beyond its present single vision, then this lack of community support is well deserved. It’s time for EWEB’s board to adopt a broader vision and become a quality-concerned member of this community.

Death From A Thousand Cuts

The board of the Southwest Hills Neighborhood Association, SHiNA, voted (7-0) July 6 to oppose EWEB’s proposed 40th and Patterson water project until and only if EWEB can better demonstrate need: need to build two massive reservoirs rather than one, need to clear cut more than two acres mature Eugene forest.

But the front page Register-Guard story 7/18 and an EW letter 7/22 have disparaged close-by neighbors as “NIMBYs” who oppose the larger public good. Our SHiNA neighborhood, I point out, is more than a mile from the proposed project. The site is not in our visual backyard, traffic backyard, etc.

The emerald city Eugene, however, is suffering death from a thousand cuts to backyard forests.

The grove of large conifer trees in question, about 60 percent water by weight, sequesters carbon and counters climate change. The grove helps cool all of Eugene on hot days, helps clean the air of pollutants, retards the fast spread of wildfire, as well as contributing other civic values including aesthetic value and wildlife habitat, notably for Monarch butterflies.

The Eugene Climate Ordinance and Climate Action Plan — CAP2.0 — calls for 30 percent minimum forest canopy. But Eugene is less than 21 percent, going backward as one small woodlot after another is cut for housing, roads, utilities, better living room views.

Councilor Emily Semple and Councilor Matt Keating have proposed a stronger Eugene tree protection ordinance, an important step to protect our trees.

We need a public discussion about EWEB

The Eugene Water & Electric Board is not telling the whole truth concerning the water project at 40th & Donald. It never planned to build two tanks concurrently, which, if allowed, is going to cause south Eugene heavy construction and traffic woes until 2025, instead of a two-year project as originally planned. There has been no public meeting concerning this project, which affects thousands of citizens.

Its time for EWEB commissioners to do their job and involve the public. We need our voices heard before it cuts our heritage grove on the site and sends huge trucks down Hilyard Stteet past Tugman Park for three-and-a-half years. It’s going to cost ratepayers untold extra millions that do not need to be spent right now. This is our land and our public utility, but EWEB is acting otherwise.

One tank on this site makes sense, but two absolutely does not given what we will lose as a city. It is time for EWEB to look for other sites, encourage conservation and join us in the 21st century. Its backward thinking does not fit with climate change, our threatened urban forest and the needs of the public.

Reservoir Reservations

Regarding the story by Henry Houston (6/3), I wonder if a more appropriate title for the article might not have been “A Former Quiet Place for Clear Cutting Ancient Trees Within City Boundaries + Explosives Down to the Bedrock and Tons and Tons of Concrete.”

Another title option might have been “A Hushed Approach to a Huge EWEB Project Without Transparency.”

Depending on the angle, what is perceived may look quite different. Take a short walk to that little known pristine wooded hilltop in south Eugene (right on 40th and left on Patterson) and decide for yourself what title would best describe the future our commons on Patterson deserve. Do it before EWEB pushes forward and gets it bulldozed in August in the name of never ending growth and abundant water for green lawns, golf courses and our voracious flush toilets.

Water security is (or at least should be) a human right, but how much do we really need to waste and at what cost to the planet’s fragile equilibrium?

Too Much, EWEB

NIMBY Strikes EWEB,” 6/17), Steve Mital, a former EWEB commissioner, accused another former commissioner, Sandra Bishop, of NIMBYISM over her opposition to the installation of two gigantic water storage tanks adjacent to her home in South Eugene.

First of all, why is it ethical for an ex-commissioner to publicly express his personal views on the motives of a former colleague, especially on a contested project of this significance? I toured the proposed site with Bishop, and she was very clear about the need for the tanks, but not the recent decision to build them both at the same time with all the noise and destruction that would entail. That decision, made without public input in the midst of the pandemic, smacks of an attempt to avoid protesters, although EWEB General Manager Frank Lawson has since apologized for the abrupt change in plans.

Even so, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the new schedule will require the removal of some of Eugene’s oldest remaining trees as well as the blasting of bedrock. As recently as January, EWEB was on the record to put in one tank then move on to tear down the aging College Hill Reservoir 607 before a catastrophe occurred there, and finally return to install the second tank in 10 years or so. Among other advantages, this sequence has the potential to give some of the largest trees 10 more years of life. Even installing one tank will create a continuous stream of heavy machinery and monster trucks rumbling by the popular Tugman Park for weeks, affecting hundreds of families, not just Bishop’s.

Two at a time is over the top. Is over the top the dominating philosophy in Eugene?

EWEB impacts

Why, with the global climate crisis, is Eugene Water and Electric Board planning to log more than 300 trees in one of the only remaining forested areas in south Eugene? Recently, with no public input, the EWEB general manager arbitrarily decided to build two 7.5 million gallon water tanks now on the 40th and Patterson Street site. This requires logging, blasting and hundreds of dump truck trips through town for months. EWEB PR erroneously asserts that it’s all necessary and claims any opposition is limited to a few complaining neighbors. Wrong. This is a major public land issue with huge environmental impacts.

The fact is neighbors supported long-range EWEB plans to build one water storage tank near 40th and Patterson while saving the forest grove at the easternmost edge of this public property. Since one water tank needs about 2 acres, there is ample space on this nearly 11 acre site to locate one tank and save the trees. It’s not an either/or situation.

So far all the decisions on this massive construction project have been made by staff. Please contact EWEB Commissioners, our elected representatives, and ask them to reconsider this staff decision and vote on whether or not they agree to destroy this forest to build two tanks now at this site.

Not NIMBY?

On an island of public land at 40th Avenue and Patterson Street the Eugene Water and Electric Board is planning to destroy a city forest. Logging is to begin in August.

Steve Mital’s personal attack letter against me (EW 6/17) is a perfect PR ploy. It detracts and spins. It takes attention away from the real issue. EWEB’s original infrastructure plan was to build one water storage tank on this large 10.74 acre site now. A tank needs less than 2.5 acres of land. This is not an either/or situation. We can have a new earthquake-proof water tank, save open land with oaks, and save a forest grove with 100- to 150-year-old trees on the property. There’s no need for EWEB to log this mature fir pine habitat.

EWEB Commissioners can prevent this environmental disaster. The plan was to build one tank. Build it. I and other neighbors have never opposed building one tank on this site. Our support was lost when the general manager arbitrarily decided, without consulting the board or other staff, to build two gigantic tanks at 40th now. Ask your EWEB elected commissioner to vote on this massive, expensive project, rather than simply “endorse” a general manager’s decision. Come and judge for yourself. Is this city forest worth saving? This is not about private property. This is not NIMBY. It’s about a public treasure.

Sandra Bishop, former
EWEB Commissioner

Eugene

Editor’s Note: Like Sandra Bishop, Steve Mital is a former EWEB commissioner, not current as was implied by the signature EW printed in last week’s letters. Mital stated it correctly in his submission. Alas, there was an editing error.

Stop Overdevelopment

I’m glad EW covered concerns about EWEB’s planned water storage tanks at 40th and Patterson (“A Quiet Place for Water,” 6/3). Here are more considerations.

The EWEB forest may be the nicest unprotected land remaining in the city of Eugene. The largest Doug-fir in the proposed clearcut is about 15 feet in circumference. EWEB also threatens Ponderosa pines, Oregon white oak and California black oak, plus a variety of native (and non-native) plants. In earlier times, there might already be people sitting in these trees to protect them.

There is an existing water tank at 52nd and Willamette, at higher elevation than Patterson Street. Extra water storage could easily be added to the south, in the publicly owned field next to the power line.

An unspoken part of EWEB’s plan is to facilitate overdevelopment. Some years ago EWEB built a water pipe to Veneta to irrigate more subdivisions. Lane County is plotting urbanization between Eugene, Veneta and Junction City. Plans to replace neighborhoods with soulless highrises along south Willamette were narrowly stopped a few years ago but overdevelopers are back, claiming that building more stuff will supposedly lower pollution. Orwellian greenwashing is greenhouse gaslighting. These plans require lots of water.

If existing tanks are really at the end of their life cycle, add a new one at 52nd and Willamette, convert the public’s EWEB forest to legally protected parkland and prepare for serious water conservation.

I recommend everyone visit our publicly owned but unprotected forest before the chainsaws and bulldozers do their worst.

Mark Robinowitz