Breaking News on February 2, 2011...
Free Asthma Care Workshops in Eugene late February...
2 LOCATIONS & DATES:
1) Fairfield School on Tuesday, February 22nd, 6:30–8:30pm
and also...
2) American Red Cross on Saturday, February 26th, 3--5pm
COST: FREE. Beverages and snacks will be provided.
The same workshop will be presented at these two locations. If you have questions or comments, feel free to
contact Alison at the OTA office: 541.465.8860.
The West Eugene Industrial Corridor Environmental Health Project
The West Eugene Industrial Corridor Environmental Health Project is a partnership between Centro LatinoAmericano, a community-based Latino human services organization, and Oregon Toxics Alliance, an environmental health advocacy organization, to engage an underserved and vulnerable community in environmental health actions. Neighborhoods in the West Eugene Industrial Corridor have higher percentages of Latino, disabled and poverty level residents than all other areas in Eugene. The purpose of the project is to enhance the community’s understanding of environmental pollutants, improve the community’s ability to communicate their environmental health concerns, and mobilize community and business partnerships to help minority and low-income neighborhoods reduce their exposure to toxics. The project activates community involvement by organizing public education opportunities, take-action events and community-based surveys at the neighborhood level. A primary outcome of this project is an expanded understanding of the environmental health priorities of the West Eugene Industrial Corridor community. This project is funded by the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation and the US EPA Environmental Justice Program.
Resources:
Local Environmental Issues:
The environmental issue that we seek to address is air pollution from industrial and transportation sources in the Industrial Corridor of West Eugene, an area that is home to higher densities of low-income residents, many of whom are Latino families. According to the EPA EnviroMapper, fifty air and toxic release sites and two Superfund sites are listed within the nine square mile area of West Eugene. The Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area is located at the southern end of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The area is dubbed “the toe of the sock” because it is cupped by mountains on the south, east and west sides. Frequent air stagnations caused by topographical barriers and wind patterns result in the accumulation of local pollution and wind-borne air pollution from other larger metropolitan areas up the valley (Portland-Beaverton and Salem-Keizer).
Toxic Releases to Air and Water:
West Eugene is located in Eugene’s Central Industrial Area. Manufacturing industries have a long history in this part of the city making paint, railroad ties, telephone poles, particle board, chemical resins, as well as laminate board, furniture and metal plating. The West Coast Union Pacific (UP) freight rail line bisects West Eugene. Eugene was once home to UP’s primary Oregon maintenance yard. Groundwater studies indicate that a groundwater plume of volatile solvent chemicals used at the Eugene Union Pacific rail yard extends beneath portions of two low-income neighborhoods. Detections of tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), 1,1-dichloroethylene (DCE) and vinyl chloride pose air and water contamination risks. Ground water pollutants are vaporizing through the soil and are measurable in the crawl spaces of nearby homes and irrigation wells (Oregon Department of Human Services Public Health Assessment, (10/29/07). West Eugene is traversed by a major transportation corridor.
Four heavily traveled routes – Interstate Highway 5, State Highway 99, Northwest Expressway and Beltline Highway – either border or cut across this densely populated area. The matrix of ground transportation elements exposes residents to pollution from diesel particulate from rail, truck and
car traffic. Diesel exhaust contains carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives. Residential wood burning in these low-income neighborhoods (for heat) is also thought to be a significant source of air pollution. Lane County, Oregon is non-attainment for particulate matter, and the state environmental agency keeps a watchful eye on carbon monoxide and ozone levels, which have occasionally spiked above heath standards.
The City of Eugene established the Toxics Right to Know database in 1997. Data collection and annual reports are under the jurisdiction of the Eugene Fire Marshall’s office. The system collects toxics release information from businesses that emit more than 2,640 pounds of pollutants. Reports from 2005 – 2008 indicate that residents in West Eugene were exposed to 3,313,622 pounds of hazardous air pollutants (2009 data is not available). Ninety-four percent (94.4%) of all Eugene’s point source emissions are located in the West Eugene (97402) part of Eugene. The EPA Toxics Release Inventory database doesn’t collect data with mass balance reporting as required by the Eugene Fire Marshall’s report; however 195,220 pounds of air toxics were reported in the 2008 TRI for the 97402 zip code area.
Community Health:
Past, present and newly permitted industrial sources and transportation sources are responsible for a wide range of public health impacts.
Respiratory Disease: The Lane County average asthma rate is 10.5 %, compared to the US national average of childhood asthma of 7.5 percent. Rates amongst local school children are even higher. Fifty deaths per 100,000 are attributed to chronic lower respiratory disease (Lane County Public Health Services Report, 2008). Local industrial air pollutants (NOx, CO, fine particulate, etc.) are associated with increased risk of asthma as well as chronic pulmonary disease, heart disease, and early mortality.
Cancer: According to the EPA’s most recent National Air Toxics Assessments (NATA), the cancer risk for air pollution in West Eugene is an approximate total risk of 44.1 per million people (“Air Toxics Monitoring and Siting Issues Report,” Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, 11/10/2009). Many of the air toxics emitted in large quantities by point sources in West Eugene’s industrial sector (e.g., formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, vinyl chloride) are likely to be associated with increased risk of cancer. A 2007 Public Health Assessment conducted found higher rates of lung cancer and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in neighborhoods located in West Eugene, although the cause of the higher rates was not determined (ODHS Public Health Assessment, 10/29/07).
Description of the Communities in the West Eugene Industrial Corridor:
The Industrial Corridor communities consist of four neighborhoods: Bethel-Danebo, Trainsong, River Road, and Santa Clara. Population is estimated at 30,000. According to data and projections published in the 2005 Eugene/Springfield Consolidated Plan, these neighborhoods have higher percentages of minority, elderly, disabled and poverty level residents than elsewhere in Eugene. Some demographics in the Industrial Corridor neighborhoods are described below.
For example, 31 percent of the students in Fairfield Elementary, and 25 percent of the students in Danebo Elementary are Latino in 2008-2009 (report on students by ethnicity, Oregon Department of Education, available (from www.state.or.us). Most of these children qualify for free or reduced lunch at the neighborhood public schools. According to the U.S. Census, a higher proportion of Latino households live in poverty in Lane County than households in any other population group.
Industrial Corridor Neighborhoods – Disproportionately Impacted by Climate Change and Environmental Harms and Risks:
The communities of West Eugene’s Industrial Corridor live in the shadow of energy production and manufacturing facilities that emit hundreds of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. They are more likely to be poor, disabled and/or Latino than other areas of the city of Eugene. They are unduly impacted by air and ground water pollution from industrial and transportation sources. Yet, because of linguistic and cultural barriers, and social isolation common among first-generation immigrants particularly those counted as the working poor, minority residents and other low-income residents in these underserved neighborhoods have fewer opportunities to receive environmental education or get help to improve local air quality, mitigate climate change, and cope with the burden of toxic exposures. They are the least able to afford increased health care costs from asthma, heart disease, cancer and disabilities aggravated by pollution. They are the least able to afford increased energy costs associated with shifting away from fossil fuels. They are the least able to identify other choices for heating when Lane County declares “no wood stove burning” alerts on increasingly frequent poor air quality days.
Increasing Community Capacity
Centro and OTA are expanding the larger community consciousness about the presence of the mostly silent and significantly under-documented presence of Latino families in West Eugene. We are raising the issue of inequities in environmental health conditions and public services with elected officials and local agencies. Our shared objectives are improving air quality, reducing the use of fossil fuels, and identifying the impacted community’s top priorities for advancing environmental and public health. We believe that these expanded efforts will, in turn, benefit the larger community of West Eugene.
Resources
OTA's Outreach Coordinator, Alison Guzman, speaks about human rights and the environment. These are snippets from an interview filmed for a Eugene, OR Human Right Commission video.
See our video about Seneca and biomass hazards...click image below to open up new window:
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