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.
:
From: Sandra Bishop <sbishop@pacinfo.com>
Subject: Re: EWEB site - Wed Sept 29 - more hauling and blasting inspection
Date: September 30, 2021 at 11:51 PM : Sep 30
The look and elevation of the EWEB site at 40th & Patterson diminishes everyday as more and more rich top soil, clay, silt and randomly appearing rocks are hauled off the site. There is a steady rumbling stream of industrial dump-trucks from 7:05am in the morning until around 4pm. The spine of this hill will soon be completely transformed. The remaining forest is whisper thin south of the construction site. From the north side of the property looking south after dark from where the dense forest once stood, one can now see lights never before visible at night from the school and around 43rd. With this massive excavation and off-hauling, the rock spine at the south edge of the construction site is becoming much narrower and not as trustworthy.
No more material was hauled from the lower middle area of the site today (would formerly was the middle of the meadow). The dump-trucks are being loaded in two stages; first the box on the truck is loaded with earth from the west side of the site then the truck pulls around the gravel loop to the east side and the trailer is filled before the truck eases down and in disgorged onto the pavement at the top of Patterson Street. Once again dust is blowing off each load, especially the earth from the west edge of the site which is a light tan-colored layer of very silty earth. There is no attempt to spray it or mitigate the dust in any way. Time to file more complaints with LRAPA. It's important that neighbors and other people who observe this travesty of air pollution report it. EWEB is not doing anything but talking about it. If they spend enough time 'looking into it' the hauling will be done and the damage to our neighborhoods and are lungs will be done.
In the afternoon I followed one of the odd (not the regular contractor) dump-trucks. It was a Delta Sand & Gravel dump-truck with trailer. Filled to overflowing (showing above the side boards of the truck and trailer). I followed it over the 30th Avenue hill past LCC and then north on the freeway and east. The load was dumped at a HYLAND Construction site at 52nd & E. Hwy 126 in east Springfield. Deja vu all over again. I've been here before... the flag gave it away. (See attached images.) I suppose there's nothing special about the 'dirt' once it leaves a site, but somehow it just seems at odds with all the EWEB PR when one realizes that these few acres of mature urban forest that had grown up over more than 100 years have been reduced to fill-dirt for construction spots all over the region.
Earlier in the day the pre-blast inspection of our house went off without a hitch. The appointment was for 11am. The person showed up on time. He called 10-minutes out. He was masked. Before he came in I asked if he was vaccinated. He was. He used a level/measurement device for the inside inspection. The machine measured the difference in level at various parts of a room. All the readings are saved to a computer, to compare any settling or change after blasting. We don't expect anything to do damage during the blasting, not your grandfather's dynamite. But you never know, just as patients are killed in hospitals from miscalculated doses of medicine, there's always the chance someone will miscalculate the blast power (Is it powder? Guess we will find out.)
EWEB estimate is 2 & 1/2 to 3 more weeks of hauling. Hard to imagine it can be done that fast, but there is quite a deep trench at the southwest side of the site. So not much more to do there. And the intensity of trucks seems to be increasing daily. At 10 trucks an hour it could add up to 90 trucks a day. The site has basically a figure-8 shaped loop of temporary gravel/crushed rock covered road. Only one truck got stuck today. A big double loaded with gravel to shore up the temp roads, strayed off the side of the east loop. The front wheel sank a half foot or so into rich brown soil. Bulldozer was put into service to tow it back onto the steel grey gravel surface. And off it went.
Always glad to hear the last truck of the day leave the site and the heavy backhoe/loaders shutdown at the end of the day. One of the twin fawns, which is limping and can run only on three legs, got separated from the doe and the other fawn the other night. Too many new fences. Hope it finds the way back to its family group. Let us know if anyone sees the twins reunited.
Sandra
LRAPA (Lane Regional Air Protection Agency)
https://www.lrapa.org/FormCenter/Online-Complaint-3/Online-Complaint-Form-43
Complaints may also be made by calling LRAPA's Complaint Line at 541-726-1930.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Sandra Bishop
Subject: Re: EWEB site - Mon Sept 27 - nothing to absorb the rain
Date: September 28, 2021 at 2:27 AM : Sep 28
An ever-increasing parade of dump-trucks came and went from the EWEB site at 40th & Patterson in the rain today. In addition to the now regular dump-truck and trailer combinations from the contractor's company, there were also dump-trucks, both singular and double, from several other companies. The name of the game seems to be to haul as much earth off the site as quickly as possible. More than 50, probably closer to 60 loads were taken off the site today. In addition at least 6 or more loads of heavy angular rock was brought in and dumped on the loops of temporary roads. Not until mid to late afternoon did we hear the bulldozer fire up. We now have use of an old style decibel reader. It is elegantly analog. Only drawback is that the readings are not recorded automatically, must be written down. Which of course renders it unusable for 'proof.' But nevertheless, knowing decibel levels from operation of some of this industrial equipment being used in the midst of the city is important.
Some interesting geology is showing up in the deep trench at the west and southern edge of the construction site. There's some indication that there might have been a fault in this area referred to as Site #2. The digging seems to have bottomed out at the required depth in a layer of heavy clay. To date this is the deepest excavated area. In some places in looks like the basalt 'bedrock' was only a couple feet thick, with clay underneath. Not exactly the most desirable anchor for a massive water storage facility.
By 4 o'clock in the afternoon a steady rain falls. All workers, including the refueling truck, are gone from the site for the day. Standing puddles are starting to form on the clay-dominant section on the west side of the site, and lower down in a more central area, now turning to mud, just above the slope down to the gate on Patterson Street.
Information and neighborhood stories about some failed pre-blast house inspections are circulating. EWEB has stepped in and there is now a new company to do these inspections. Another quality control issue, lack of it that is.
More rain is predicted tonight. Will see what tomorrow brings on the site.
Amazing to think about how much carbon sequestration there was in the standing forest, and how much water was being processed everyday through the trees. Such a contrast to the pitifully poor site now, bereft of any green live growth, where measures have to be taken to prevent muddy water carrying soil down the paved street at the low end of the site. Too bad EWEB refused to do any sort of calculation on the carbon sequestration value of the trees before the forest was eliminated on this site. If EWEB had stayed with the approved plan to build one water storage reservoir here, and then only cleared the trees from half the site, they could have used the standing trees as a mitigation for all the carbon emissions released from the heavy equipment and truck use and all the other related emissions involved in this construction project and materials. I wonder how many years it would take to absorb or balance out those emissions. Would be great if someone could do the calculation. Perhaps only about ten years or so would be my guess, if half this construction site had remained under forest. There is some forest area remaining, but it is not as concentrated and certainly not as dense as the area that was cleared.
Sandra
[note from Mark: it takes considerably longer to "balance" emissions from burning fossil fuels and clearcutting that is often assumed. Clearcut forests are sources for carbon emissions even after replanting for two decades or longer. Absorbing fossil carbon essentially does not happen - the fossil carbon is taken from deep repository in the Earth's crust and put into the biosphere. Even letting forests grow back to old growth cannot sequester this extra carbon out of the biosphere.]
Begin forwarded message:
From: Sandra Bishop <sbishop@pacinfo.com>
Subject: Re: EWEB site - Thurs Sept 23 - heavy hauling
Date: September 23, 2021 at 10:12 PM : Sep 23
Back to the grind. By 7:10am this morning the first dump-truck was loaded and gone taking more earth from the EWEB site at 40th & Patterson. By 7:18am the 2nd truck & trailer was loaded and gone. The fun begins with the 3rd truck. The third dump-truck with trailer tried to go up the center 'gravel' road. It only made it halfway up the slope. It rolls back, backs up and makes a second try. Doesn't make it. Wheels are spinning out in the rocky gravel. Think about it - it takes a lot for wheels to spin out on these heavy industrial trucks. The driver is not giving up. The trailer and truck backs all the way out the gate onto the pavement on Patterson Street to get a running start. Giving up on the middle path the truck finds purchase on the western loop. Stopping on the gentler slope, under the yawning maw of the mechanical scoop of a yellow backhoe/loader, the body of the truck is filled and the truck pulls away. Just as I'm starting to cheer, glad it will go away half empty, it stops near a second backhoe/loader. The trailer is quickly filled with a half dozen scoops of rich brown soil. And the race is on. All this in an early morning fog.
Having figured out that they can fill the truck box on the slope up and the trailer on the slope coming down, the two backhoe/loader operators working on the site double-team it and work steady for the next 9 and a half hours. Yes, the work hours were extended to 6pm today and Friday. According to an official EWEB notice - this is to allow the contractor to make up for time lost to weather. The work stopped on the site at around 4:30pm today, but not before somewhere between 70 and 76 truck/trailer combinations had been filled to over-flowing (in some cases) and left the site carrying tons of soil and earth. Each of the dump-truck boxes is estimated to hold around 12 yards of material, if anyone wants to do the math on how much is being hauled away. By 9:30am 19 trucks had come and gone away loaded. Average load time is about 8 minutes. Last week it was 5-minute load times for each truck and trailer, but with two loaders it's not quite as fast.There were some good size rocks mixed in as well.
Speaking of rock - at around 7:30am a truck & trailer filled with large chunks of uniform rock arrived on the site and dumped the load on the east gravel road. It was spread later by the bulldozer. The loggers used to call these bulldozers the "butter cat." I suppose an allusion to the fact that it is supposed to be able to smooth out anything. The truck and trailer left the site 15 minutes later filled with soil. It's interesting to note that this road material is much larger than the gravel/rock that was brought on in the first place. Apparently the earth is swallowing up the lesser gravel.
Jim followed one load from the site today. It was dumped near Creswell. In the EWEB controlled Zoom meeting on Wednesday night with a few close neighbors the excavation contractor's rep said the earth was being taken to a quarry near Creswell. Jim said it looked like about 10 acres of flat land being filled. Perhaps it was a gravel extraction area. Whatever it is, it most likely is being set up for more development.
Sandra
On 9/22/21 9:03 PM, Sandra Bishop wrote:
Nature prevail again today. No earth was hauled off the EWEB site at 40th & Patterson for the third day this week. There is no sign of water anywhere on the site that I can see. The earth is doing it's job absorbing and holding the water from rains this last week-end. A civilian size pick-up truck and some small equipment went over the makeshift gravel roads during the morning, as if testing to see what weight would bear without sinking through the gravel to the waiting brown earth. A smaller, lighter roller/compactor was on site today, compacting the disturbed gravel.
Mid-afternoon today a couple of loads of alien silver-grey coarse gravel showed up on the site. All this an attempt to build up the temporary roads to hold the weight of the huge dump-truck trailer combinations.
Although there was no hauling off the site today, there was a lot of heavy equipment activity. Lots of excavation, seemingly meaningless at times, but a pattern is emerging. Excavation in the southwestern most upper corner seems to be where one of the reservoirs will end up being built, at least the upper wall of it. If anyone has the energy to hike around to the south side (back) of the site it will give you an idea of just what massive scale construction, after this destruction, is being undertaken. All this is being described by EWEB PR people as "removing approximately 15 feet to top soil...". More PR misinformation. This excavation has gone deep in several places, through various layers of ash, clay, silt, and other rock and soil types. This kind of disruption to this ecosystem will have unfolding consequences to the water table, adjacent plants and trees (including wind shear), slopes, and the climate. By not to worry, they're only removing some top soil.
I'm wondering more and more about the cost of doing this exaggerated bury-it-in-the-ground construction, compared to building a surface reservoir. I can't imagine that earthquake-proofing an above ground structure to hold water is that difficult. And as to the 'viewscape.' Seems like another PR ploy. Why in the world would the ratepayes throughout the city and up the river (EWEB territory) want to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not million to protect some phantom 'viewscape'? One of the first things I asked EWEB staff when I first heard some of the specifics about this project was - why does it need to be buried and what is it going to cost to bury it? The answer to the first question was - to protect the viewscape. I never have gotten an answer to the second. Cost. This public utility seems to be more like a runaway train everyday when it comes to budget and cost. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that EWEB build a 30-foot high concrete reservoir on top of this hill --- I'm simply wondering why they are building here at all given the extreme disruption and cost of all this earth-moving.
Sandra
From: Sandra Bishop
Subject:
Re: EWEB site - Mon Sept 20 - too heavy to haul
Date: September 21, 2021 at 1:19 AM : Sep 21
Rain. Refreshing, rejuvenating rain. Over the week-end almost 2 inches of rain had seemingly seeped unnoticed into the bare earth at the EWEB site at 40th & Patterson. There was no visible flooding, landslide or other flow of soil or water.
Under a clearing sky on Monday morning, a few minutes after 7am, the first huge dump truck and trailer came around the loop road and shuttered to a stop at the east end of the property to be loaded. First load of the day. The giant yellow backhoe/loader quickly dumped in several scoops of dark-colored earth. After only the 6th scoopful the truck driver hailed the backhoe operator. Both got out to look at the truck. All 4 tires were sunk down 4 to 6 inches into the gravel. Bulges of grey gravel spread out from each of the tires in a wave pattern I've never seen before in gravel.
At 7:15am the dump truck and trailer was towed off the hill by a bulldozer. By 7:30am the truck was at the bottom of the site. After 20 minutes of being sprayed with a fire hose all surfaces of the tires had been thoroughly cleared of mud and the first truck left the site with 1/2 a load only, actually more like one-third of a regular size load. The second truck that had been lined up waiting to be filled left the site completely empty.
No more dump trucks hauling from the site today. The roller/compactor operator had to take several runs up the slight incline to avoid getting stuck himself, before he could get to the spot where the truck had mired down. He smoothed out the gravel but the telltale streak of rich brown dirt gives away the illusion that this is a real road.
It will be interesting to see what goes on tomorrow. More gravel likely - more man conquering nature...
Sandra
From: Sandra Bishop
Subject: Re: EWEB site - Fri Sept 17th - high points during excavation
Date: September 21, 2021 at 1:20 AM : Sep 21
Whew! Two weeks have whizzed by since the last report on the destruction on the EWEB site at 40th & Paterson. Digging and hauling go on most days. Some high points (terrible pun and not funny!) are listed below, then more details.
Jim just walked by my desk and read the "EWEB CUT NO TREES" sign that I have in front of me when I'm writing. He wants a new sign - EWEB DIG NO HOLES.
Sandra
In summary:
Week ending Friday Sept 10th
Two days of earth moving on the site, and two days of hauling soil and earth off the site. It's interesting to see the different layers of soils, clay and rock. Amazing to see how think and rich the soil is - a testament to the health and diversity of the forest that once graced this soon-to-disappear hill. A wider road was flattened out looping around the upper end of the site. Public testimony by Mark and Marilyn at monthly EWEB meeting is met with the usual defensiveness and obfuscation. No answers to straightforward questions are given by EWEB commissioners or the General Manager.
WEEK-END action:
Sat Sept 11th - Bowe and four young friends canvassed the neighborhood near the EWEB site and collected signatures to recall EWEB commissioners John Barofsky and Mindy Schlossberg. Schlossberg is the at-large commissioner so any registered voter in the city can sign the recall for her. To sign recall for Barofsky person must live in City Ward 2 or Ward 3.
Week ending Friday Sept 17th
Five days of frenzied hauling away of soil and earth, punctuated by Mark's LRAPA complaint, and an EWEB sponsored zoom meeting with some of the close neighbors and the blasting contractor. The last two days of the week, more hauling - gravel coming, earth going away. Rain is predicted. The fine powdery yellow silty dirt in the middle of the site and the rich brown soil on the eastern edge are now hidden beneath layers of stark fresh grey rock. Rain is expected.
More detail:
Sept 6th through Sept 10th
Mon Sept 6th - Labor Day - no work at the site.
Tues & Wed Sept 7th & 8th - One backhoe/excavator operator digging and moving earth around on the site.
Tues evening Sept 7th
Monthly EWEB Board meeting - Public Testimony and EWEB response
Mark and Marilyn both testified during the Public Input period. In his comments Mark clearly stated - use dust covers for trucks - in reference to the dust coming off the dump-trucks hauling soil off the site. And he said - wet down the dust on the site.
Marilyn also clearly stated in her comments that the trucks are not covered, and are not wetted down. In response, Frank Lawson, EWEB GM, said "It's very unlikely that we will cover a dump truck. That's pretty impractical."
Three times during his reply he said staff will continue to "monitor the protocols." What does that mean?! Really! And is the public to know what these "protocols" are?
The Public Input period at these EWEB Board meetings is always introduced with the comment that if a questions is asked someone will get back to you. No way. Doesn't happen. Most questions are simply ignored, or flippantly dismissed, or better yet - used as a jumping off point to talk about something entirely unrelated.
Marilyn also asked a question about financing. EWEB Commissioner John Barofsky took the opportunity during response to Public Input to talk about how much money the Stay had cost the ratepayers. And something about a couple thousand dollars to leave snags for habitat. He said the increases Marilyn asked about would be explained in the Consent Calendar. Does he even know what a Consent Calendar is? It means NO DISCUSSION, just consent. So no answer to her question there.
Frank Lawson, EWEB GM, defensively addressed Marilyn's question about financing. He said something to the effect that he didn't know if she was asking about added expenses from ... activities over the last month ... or the additional cost of doing two tanks instead of one. He said it was "...covered quite extensively over the course of the last year and a half." And then referred her to the Record of Decision from the EWEB Board meeting last April. Interesting that he was so defensive. And, of course, no answer to Marilyn's question.
Marilyn also asked about the EWEB plan to makes benches from some of the trees. She specifically said she want(ed) to know how that project is going. No one touched that question.
Thurs Sept 9th - Major earth hauling began again today with EWEB using much larger trucks. This is the first day that huge dump-trucks with trailers are being used. Very dangerous as the trailer tongue is as long as the truck, so huge gap between truck and trailer. Loads of earth are going to a site east of Creswell. Someone thought it might be a new housing development. Dust covers (called 'load tarps') are available on many of these trucks, but are not being used . . . see Lawson's remarks above - too impractical. Dust and dirt is blowing everywhere behind the trucks as they travel through the neighborhoods and over 30th Avenue hill past LCC.
Fri Sept 10th - More loading and hauling. As large as these trucks and trailers are it only takes about 5 minutes to load. Each truck and trailer together take carry 11 to 14 scoops of earth and rocks. There are still some pieces of tree roots showing up. All these trucks are overloaded. By that I mean the soil/dirt/earth is mounded up and can be seen above the side boards of the truck. No wonder dust and dirt is blowing everywhere off the trucks.
Sept 13th through Sept 17th
Mon Sept 13th - Frenzied hauling in dump-trucks with trailers continues. Mark filed a complaint with LRAPA about the dust.
Tues Sept 14th - On his way to work at 8am Jim happened to be behind a dump-truck going north on Hilyard Street, doing 35 mph past Tugman Park (speed limit is 30mph). Here's the response back from an email asking that they stop these trucks from speeding through the neighborhood:
On 9/15/21 1:16 PM, Laura Farthing wrote:
Good afternoon,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, we take safety very seriously. I talked to the contractor this morning before trucks arrived at the site, we met in person to further discuss the importance of obeying the speed limit and we are in contact with the City of Eugene Traffic department to discuss any further measures that might be needed.
Thanks, Laura
Wed Sept 15th - 10AM and there are four EWEB people on the site. The contractor has someone using the fire hose to wet down a load of earth in a dumptruck with trailer before it leaves the site. Obviously Mark's LRAPA air complaint has filtered down to EWEB power-that-be.
As some as the EWEB people leave the site, the fire hose is laid down and not picked up again today. None of the dumptruck loads I see leaving the site in the afternoon are wetted down. So much for dust control.
Wed evening Sept 15th - Meeting orchestrated by EWEB PR staff via zoom to have a few close neighbors hear the blasting contractor explain what is to come. The meeting was recorded and supposedly available on the EWEB website, but I can't find it. The high point of the meeting for me was asking a question of the blasting contractor:
Q. SB - What is the minimum number of feet away from an existing structure that you can do the blasting?
A. Kris, EWEB blasting contractor - We have blasted 5 feet from a structure.
So much for the BS excuse used by EWEB staff and commissioners to say they had to take all the trees down on both reservoir site locations because they couldn't build one reservoir now and then come back in ten years and build another next to it, because they can't blast beside an existing reservoir. Totally false, as we have been saying all along.
EWEB staff says that rock has been brought on the site to help keep dust down and that all loads leaving the site are being sprayed with water to mitigate the dust. I point out that no loads leaving the site int he afternoon were sprayed.
Thurs & Fri Sept 16th & 17th - More hauling and the contractor has a person assigned to spray water on each load before it leaves the site. Multiple loads of rock (very coarse gravel) were brought in. A roller/compactor is on site. The gravel in being spread and compacted on the road that loops through the site. Lots of rain expected late Friday and Saturday.
From: Sandra Bishop
Subject: EWEB site - Fri Sept 3 - dump truck spotting
Date: September 4, 2021 at 7:22 PM : Sep 4
Another week has gone by in a flurry of dust on the EWEB site at 40th & Patterson. What was once a basalt ridge with a trail through several acres of natural forest is now a barren landscape of loose dirt pushed into mounds to be hauled away in dump trucks. Today was a typical day for soil and dirt removal. At 7am sharp several large industrial dump trucks that had been lined up at the entrance gate were let in and loading began. Two large yellow backhoes are operating on the site. One with a bulldozer blade is pushing dirt into distinct piles. Another large backhoe with a giant scoop on the front dips into the large piles of brown earth, punctuated with pieces of root and rocks, to fill the waiting trucks. Each truck labors up a slope on the west end of the property and stops just after cresting the top of what was the ridgeline. Now pointed downhill they stop under the swinging arm of the backhoe and idle for the few minutes that it takes for the truck to be filled with dirt. It takes about 7 scoops to fill the smaller of the trucks, and 10 or so scoops to fill the larger trucks. It's quite a parade as each truck is a different make model and color and from a different company.
By 7:30am 5 trucks have arrived empty and departed full. The loads are not as clean as last week's hauls There are some sizable rocks mixed in with the dirt. You can tell how big the rocks are by how much the truck rocks when the scoopful of (mostly) dirt is emptied into the bed. Some of the rocks are perhaps a foot or more in diameter. If they get scooped up they go into the truck.
At 8 o'clock I decide to start noting the actual times that the trucks arrive and depart. Whew! Hard to keep up. It takes only about 3 minutes from the time a truck arrives, gets loaded and leaves. Between 8 and 8:30 am another 7 trucks arrive empty and departed loaded. There's a green cab with white body. There's a white cab with green body. There's a dark blue truck that takes nearly double the load. I start to note the number of extra wheels each truck has. It's all a blur. Some trucks are loaded to overflow in 2 minutes. Dust is blowing continually to the east on the wind.
Around 8:30am all work stops. All available trucks have been loaded and are gone, but usually the backhoe operators keep pushing dirt around, making new mounds and getting ready for the next round of trucks. But all work has ceased and the four people on site; two backhoe operators, an EWEB supervisor-looking person, and a man with a notebook are all conferring and gesticulating about something in the vicinity of the backhoe that has been loading the trucks. Apparently something of interest has been found. The man with the notebook is from Aggregate Resource Industries Inc. - identified by the logo on his pickup and his shirt. The others are listening to him. Three of them, including the ARI guy, get on on their cell phones and are talking. Meanwhile the ARI guy goes back to his truck and gets a length of thin rope that has a crude weight of some kind tied to one end, and a can of spray paint. He goes back up the hill and appears to be dropping the rope into holes in the ground. The line he is using reminds me of plumb bobs used on old construction sites, but here the ARI guy seems to be trying to gauge the depth of the holes. It's intriguing. Are they simply worried the heavy equipment or a truck will fall into one of these holes, or have they found something of interest? Finally I get an angle of sight where I can see how much line he hauls back up. From that it appears that at least a couple of the 4 or 5 holes he tests may be 5 or 6 feet deep. He marks each one with spray paint after he has plumbed the depths. I'm already plotting how to look at them later. Not to be. No sooner have the holes been marked than the backhoe operator jumps back into action and pour scoops of dirt in the area and then smooths them over. Darn. Not even a nice hole in the ground to look forward to exploring. Perhaps the holes were from the extensive root systems from the trees. Will never know.
By 8:49am two more trucks have arrived to be loaded and all the excitement seems to be over. By 8:50am the ARI guy leaves the site and the EWEB guy sits in his idling truck for the next hour or two. By around 11am the only person left on the site in the backhoe operator who is filling trucks with dirt. He works by himself the rest of the day until the hauling shuts down at around 2:30pm. A couple of guys using survey equipment spend a half hour or so after that taking sight measurements from several vantage points at the edges of the property. It would be a pity if the hill got shaved off too short, but then I'm sure they could fix that. It is so strange and somehow startling to witness firsthand this man-dominating-nature scenario playing out with this piece of land. But meanwhile back to the flow of a hauling day on the EWEB site.
When my husband Jim is leaving for work around 8:30am he decides to follow one of the dump trucks to see where all the dirt is going. Here is his text message:
Truck went to construction site in east Springfield (big sign fill dirt wanted). 30th to I-5 to 105 then north to 52nd.
Lots of dust blowing out of truck the whole way.
He tells me I should follow a truck to see the place. After watching and tallying trucks coming and going for 4 hours I get the chase-a-truck bug and decide to follow the largest capacity bright red truck to see if it goes to the same place. It does.
The red truck I followed is one of the largest. It has three, what I call, extra wheels. In addition to the triple axles many of these dump trucks also have one, two or three of these 'extra' wheels that can be lowered down to run on the road when carrying heavier loads. I suppose it helps to stabilize the truck. Any way, now the red truck has 12 wheels on the ground. As I follow it down Hilyard Street past Tugman Park I notice some chunks of rock and hard clods of dirt the size of baseballs rolling in the gutter at the side of the road. On the flat on Hilyard Street before we get to 30th Avenue I notice my car is being pelted with a not-so-fine grit that is blowing off the truck. All these trucks are loaded to the maximum weight, with dirt heaped in a mound that is visible above the truck's sideboards. I assume the grit will stop raining on my car after a few blocks. Not so. All the way on the freeway to east Springfield dust is visibly blowing off the truck and the grit keeps coming. When I get to the site I'm met with huge signs that say no trespassing, private property. The site is near the intersection of 52nd & High Banks Road in east Springfield. It's just north of a small configuration of newish-looking industrial warehouses. The dump site appears to be a private construction site. Obviously some industrialist is planning to make money building on the remnants of the demise of nature from south Eugene. The white on black 'F--k Biden' flag flying just inside the razor wire-topped fence of the dump/construction site is a nice touch.
Later in the day Jim encountered a dump truck that was traveling up east Amazon apparently headed over Dillard Road to the dump site used last week near Camas Swale on the road south towards Creswell. This truck was also leaving a trail of blowing dust and dirt everywhere it went. This would be easy to control. Loads can be covered, or they could simply use a hose and water the loads down before getting on the road. But no. It seems there is a big hurry to scoop and drive.
During the first 4 hours of the day today there were at least 30 truck loads of dirt taken off the site. Jim calculates that at 12 yards per truck it will take 4,000 truck loads to clear the area for one water reservoir. Not sure how he did the calculation but it's probably not far off considering that EWEB is telling neighbors 15,000 loads over the multi-year project.
So much for this truck-chasing day. Each truck hauling a load to the east Springfield site takes an hour round-trip. From all the data gathered today from observing trucks coming and going on the site, even with the hour of observation I missed while following the red truck, I'm sure there were at least 50 truck loads of dirt and soil taken away today.
Bowe is organizing signature gathering for the recall of Barofsky and other EWEB Commissioners. We need to get as many signatures for recall in a day as there are loads taken off the site. That would be fitting justice for this injustice. Meanwhile I'm thinking about a career as a private eye, as I'm getting good at following vehicles, especially if they are large and brightly colored. Have to keep some perspective on this craziness.
On the LUBA front a 14-day period during which the Record will be determined has just started. So it could be another month or more before the final briefs. It's disheartening not to have saved the forest, but it will be very beneficial for the neighborhoods affected by this huge project if LUBA ends up holding EWEB accountable and gets the project dialed back to building one reservoir here now as originally planned, not allowing EWEB to extend this industrial activity/construction for an additional year or two.
Sandra
From: Sandra Bishop <sbishop@pacinfo.com>
Subject: Re: EWEB site - Fri Aug 27 - the dust bowl
Date: August 28, 2021 at 12:17 AM : Aug 28
Comparative quiet on the EWEB site at 40th & Patterson today. So quiet that this morning a doe with two fawns was running around the top of the property while the now ubiquitous dump trucks were coming and going. It was disconcerting seeing deer inside the construction fence. The female might be able to jump the fence to get out, but not the fawns. But, just as I was plotting how to get the deer out if they were there at the end of the day, they made their way down to the lower edge of the property at Patterson Street and walked out the open gate. Whew. What a relief. It was bizarre to see deer moving about on the brown dirt hill, raising small clouds of dust as they moved. Dirt is all that is left on the site, with the exception of two or three sawed off trees, apparently left to die for habitat of some kind. Nothing is left of the forest except a couple of huge cone-shaped mounds of shredded wood. Even these are are steadily disappearing. These wood shreds seem to be getting mixed into the soil and dirt and hauled away, or somehow being diminished on the site.
The Turley Excavator was hauled away today. It went through the gate just after the deer. This is the huge backhoe that had the special smashing, crushing, tree-stump-killing attachment on the front. Destroying fir and pine root systems that have developed over more than a hundred years took a toll. The machine no longer looks shiny new. After this huge machine was extricated the site seems much quieter. Dump trucks show up empty and leave less than five minutes later full. At the end of the day, just before 5pm, another large backhoe, the CAT 320C was hauled away.
The late afternoon wind picked up brown dirt and spread it to the east, reminding me of images of the dust bowl in the 1930's.
Have we not learned any lessons from that time?
Sandra
From: Sandra Bishop <sbishop@pacinfo.com>
Subject: Re: EWEB site - Thurs Aug 26 - more stump obliteration
Date: August 26, 2021 at 10:51 PM : Aug 26
The day began with truck chasing at 8:30am. A dump truck full of soil was too tempting, so I followed. It went down Hilyard past Tugman Park, then over 30th Ave. past LCC to I-5. Once on the freeway it took the exit to Goshen, then turned south toward Creswell. Just south of Camas Swale the truck turned right on Ricketts Rd; a dead end to land owned by ODOT. That is apparently where all the soil from the site is going.
Today was a particularly loud day at the EWEB 40th & Patterson site. Who would have thought - the stumps are proving harder to eviscerate than the trees. Blue-black burning oil smoke from the humongous grinder is common place. The air was thick with a shroud of blue smoke from the engine of the revved up grinder most of the day. It billowed off the site to the east.
I watched today as the roots from some of the largest firs, including one with more than 130 growth rings, were fed through the grinder. I took a video I'll try to post later, perhaps Mark can post on the website. There was something very unusual about one of the huge pieces of root that was on the conveyor belt going into the grinder - it had very regular man-made looking rib-like spacing of roots. It almost looked like the root had grown up around a culvert or barrel or something. Very odd. A couple of days ago I also noticed that part of the largest tree's stump was hollow. I don't know if it was that particular stump, but it might have been. Hopefully someone else can look at the video and see what I'm talking about. Watching the largest backhoe on site picking up these torn, jagged pieces of root systems and placing them into the mouth of the grinder machine was like watching a giant yellow dinosaur -like bird feeding a voracious, insatiable offspring.
Meanwhile on the western side of the property dump trucks were showing up singularly or in twos. It took about 5 minutes for a backhoe with front scoop to fill one with soil. Then off it went. All are triple axle. It's Day one of the soil extraction and hauling. I lost track of how many dump trucks left the site loaded today. Probably less then a dozen. Only the beginning of the 15,000 truck loads, or is it truck trips (?), expected during this project.
Too bad all the company reps weren't here today to see the ubiquitous blue oil smoke belching from the grinder equipment.
At around 6:30pm the heavy equipment finally shut down. For the last half hour or so one man was blowing soil and dirt off of, and out of, the giant grinder, and getting it lined up with trailer equipment. Amazing that only one person is working alone with this huge equipment. Perhaps it will be hauled away tomorrow. I don't think there is any woody material left to grind on the site. Down to the soil and dirt, then the rock.
Will see what tomorrow brings.
Sandra
From: Sandra Bishop <sbishop@pacinfo.com>
Subject: EWEB site - Mon Aug 23 - any evidence of trees disappearing
Date: August 23, 2021 at 7:41 PM : Aug 23
Early this morning when work began at 6:45am on the 40th & Patterson EWEB site the wood chip/shred piles were steaming. It looked like smoke.
There was a frenzy of activity on the property today. At one point there were 4 large backhoes with log grappler or grabber/jaws operating on the site. Felled trees have been cut to length for stacking and log hauling. Any odd, short lengths, no matter the circumference, are being run through the humongous chipper. Once again, belching blue/black smoke, the engine of this machine almost burned up while chewing through a 2 or 3 foot section of one of the largest downed firs.
One log truck load left the site today. It was a full-size log truck with trailer. The truck was loaded with decent size conifers, the trailer was loaded with oaks. Altogether at least 100 logs or more, some decent size. They were taken to Goshen Forest Products. So much for the wood being used for furniture or something useful. This EWEB PR bs about all the wood will remain in the community - yes as chips perhaps. EWEB really doesn't care. They have simply told the contractor to clear the site. And do it fast. It is as if they are clearing weeds. To our great community leaders at EWEB, the trees had no value standing as a forest and have no value now as lumber. How many houses could have been built with the wood from these trees?
Stumps are systematically being ripped out and destroyed at the same time these huge backhoes are picking up forest material and feeding it through the chipper. So there is no way to count stumps. So we will never know for sure how many trees were cut. Some people have counted tree rings on some of the stumps.
More equipment was brought in today - namely a large excavator. It now looks like a display lot for equipment sales. There are four different size Kumatsu backhoes on site.
On a lighter note - the "hidden" trail camera in the hollow log is gone. I guess Mark taking a picture of the camera blew their cover.
Full moon last night was extraordinarily bright with no trees to filter it. Reminded me we had gatherings the last two full moons to educate people about the forest and the shallowness of this project. Guess we didn't educate fast enough.
There has been another development in the LUBA appeal. EWEB's attorney made a Motion to Dismiss, saying LUBA didn't have jurisdiction. LUBA already said, in response to allowing EWEB to intervene, that they (LUBA) have jurisdiction and that the erosion prevention permit is a land use action. I don't think LUBA will dismiss it, but once again there is no telling what will happen. The bond is to be returned because the Stay was lifted last week.
There are some contributions coming in to help pay for the final legal work on the LUBA appeal. The basic premise of the appeal is that EWEB does not have authority to build more than one water reservoir at the 40th & Patterson Hill site at this time. That's what LUBA is being asked to review, if we can ever get there. EWEB's attorney is a champion of running up the opposition's legal bill with all kinds of implausible moves that have to be answered. So much to learn from these processes. I only hope that some people's observation that LUBA decides cases on land use rules, is true.
Sandra