1/9/2024 0 Comments Blueprint paper chemical smell![]() The first complaint arrived typewritten on delicate onion skin paper one summer day in 1970. Town residents who had never donated to a political campaign were left to beg for help. Six days after the deal was signed, the railroad handed Huffman a $1,000 campaign donation. The agency’s own attorney later said the state’s failure to involve residents in the process could be the basis for a lawsuit. After a deal was signed, Huffman said letting the public comment on it would amount to little more than a “bitch session.” They could have included the public in negotiations about a solution. They asked the company for voluntary steps to reduce odors. In the 2016 fight over AmeriTies, records show, Huffman pushed the state to protect the company and its 50 jobs. ![]() John Huffman, a Republican representing The Dalles. Over a decade, the railroad gave $144,000 to Oregon lawmakers, including then-Rep. It owns the property where the AmeriTies plant is located and is financially responsible for the Superfund cleanup there. Union Pacific Railroad is the company’s main customer. ![]() (Photo: Michael Lloyd/staff)ĪmeriTies has powerful friends on its side. John Huffman, R-The Dalles, at left, speaking with Rep. “We remain committed to being both a good employer and neighbor,” he wrote. Jeff Thompson, the plant’s manager, said in a statement that his company “has worked diligently with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to address odor concerns.” Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality has allowed the stench to persist through decades of complaints, even after policymakers empowered the agency to declare persistent odors a public nuisance and penalize companies that continue creating them. “I knew they would never do anything about it.” The non-smoker, now 92, said he knew he could not wait for state authorities. Bennett took an estimated $30,000 loss selling his home in 2011 to escape upwind. He started complaining in 2002 about the mothball smell that crept up Dry Hollow Road and sneaked in his doors and windows. Retired pharmaceutical company manager Norman Bennett blames the pollution for his 2008 lung cancer diagnosis. The noxious pollutant drove at least 20 adults and children to move out of their homes, The Oregonian/OregonLive found. Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a possible human carcinogen. One of its primary constituents is naphthalene, which the U.S. It is used as a preservative to help wooden railroad ties withstand insects and weather. Industry gets a direct line to decision makers, while people who complain about pollution get shut out.įor nearly a century, The Dalles has been a dumping ground for one of Oregon’s most environmentally destructive businesses - a railroad tie plant that contaminated the Columbia River, created a Superfund site and put the city’s drinking water at risk.īut residents say what makes life miserable is the noxious air pollution created by the current owner, AmeriTies, and its use of creosote.Ĭreosote is a thick, black liquid derived from coal. The money explains why Oregon has fallen behind on a long list of environmental protections.Įnvironmental regulators are under the steady watch of lawmakers who take hundreds of thousands of dollars from Corporate America. They give more per resident than anywhere else in the country. ![]() No one donates more to Oregon lawmakers than business groups, an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive found. The ensuing battle to stop the stench shows what a political system fueled by corporate cash means for ordinary Oregonians. In 2016, a few town residents decided they’d had enough. “I gotta tell you, if I was diagnosed with cancer, I would immediately think it was because I lived here.” “There are times it’s nauseating – you just can’t stand it,” said Roger Pettit, 46, who lived a half-mile downwind until he moved last spring. Residents say when the worst fumes hit, the smell is so overpowering they can’t sit on their decks, let their kids play outside, mow their lawns, garden, sleep with the windows open or welcome out-of-town friends. The sickening smell of mothballs can burn the inside of your nose, even on what people here consider a good day. THE DALLES - To experience Oregon’s deference to powerful polluting industries, visit this Columbia River town 90 minutes east of Portland. ![]()
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