A few days ago the Statesman Journal ran a story about clean-up efforts after hundreds of houses were destroyed in the Beachie Creek fire that ravaged the Santiam Canyon in early September.
KATU News photo
Here's some excerpts from "EPA hauls hazardous waste from homes burned in Beachie Creek fire."
Static from Geiger counters and creaks from metal echoed as crews in hazmat suits carefully inspected and sorted rubble where a house once stood off E. Central Road in Gates.
The property, devastated by the Beachie Creek Fire in early September, is one of many sites across the state being cleared of hazardous waste by crews from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
...The EPA's cleanup effort is the first in a two-step process funded by FEMA and the State of Oregon. The service is free to residents who submit Right of Entry forms.
Crews are collecting material ranging from bleach containers to batteries, paint to propane tanks —"anything that is compromised and potentially threatens public health," said Randy Nattis, incident commander for EPA.
So far, the teams have been able to clean up about 450 properties across Oregon, Nattis said. Officials anticipate the process will take several weeks, and each property can cost about $75,000.
The goal is to have the hazardous debris removed to start phase two: ash and trash cleanup.
Problem is, now it's late October. As you can read below, earlier this month someone sent me their concerns about metal from burned homes being handled at Cherry City Metal in north Salem.
It appears that this was debris being removed from the Santiam Canyon before environmental agencies began to put into place protocols for separating out hazardous waste from non-hazardous waste. Here's what I was told:
The largest environmental catastrophe to ever hit the Salem community is at the beginning stages.
Federal, state and local governments are allowing this catastrophe to unfold in plain sight. The impacts will last for centuries unless there is action in the next month.
There are two components to the environmental catastrophe. Let us begin with the "point source" in north Salem.
There is a plant that is raining down heavy metals, sulfur, and asbestos across the Salem metropolitan area that originates within blocks of the Blind and Deaf School in North Salem.
Many pounds of toxins are being released into the air six days a week with no government monitoring. How could this be happening in Salem Oregon in the year 2020?
Well, here's how it's happening and it is similar to the environmental and economic catastrophe that unfolded in Kellogg Idaho in 1973 that left the region as a Superfund site.
Salem has our own Bunker Hill that began operation in early October 2020 that is raining heavy metals down on the area and it should be shut down before it runs for a year and a half and leaves a legacy that will need to be remediated at tremendous cost and harm the lives of thousands of Salem residents.
Cherry City Metal is the destination for hundreds of thousands of pounds of metal that is being recovered from the 600 plus homes that burnt in the North Santiam Canyon.
Six days a week plumes of toxic dust with heavy metals and sulfur originate at the Cherry City Metals operation in North Salem. There is not even a minor attempt to control the dust which is filled with toxic ash. If they sprayed water to control the dust, they would have another environmental catastrophe like what will be washing down the north Santiam River beginning this rainy season.
If you have not driven up to Gates and made a loop back on the opposite side of the North Santiam River, you need to take a drive to see ground zero for the source of Salem's environmental catastrophe.
Metal dumpsters are being loaded and hauled west on Highway 22 to the Cherry City Metals plant. Foundations at the edge of Salem's drinking water are being cleared of ash and debris.
While dump trucks of ash are disappearing into private non-regulated landfills all through the North Santiam Canyon and will leach into Salem's water supply for centuries, the metal recycling semi trucks are running down Highway 22 in plain view and releasing plumes of toxin over North Salem.
I watched a recording of the Marion County Commissioners meeting this week where they got an update on the fire debris response. Kevin Cameron read out loud a letter from a resident in the North Santiam Canyon and then proceeded to ignore the concerns.
The reality is that a property owner in the North Santiam Canyon has to pay at least $2,000 just to get their ash and fire debris tested. Only after a high-priced consultant writes a report, can the ash can be trucked to Coffin Butte landfill near Corvallis.
There are plans being developed for how government can help to clear the burned building debris, but the deadline for initiating that process is October 16th. Government supported efforts to remove ash will likely not begin for six to nine months.
Hundreds of property owners are not waiting. The deadline for applying for help is a month and a half after the Beachie Fire raged. Many property owners are not waiting around for government, they are creating their own landfills at the edge of the North Santiam River which is the source of water for Salem residences.
Even aside from the toxins, there is a complete lack of awareness of the forest ash and mud flows that will impact Salem's drinking water.
Regarding that last observation, I was sent links to two related brief articles about the long-term impact of wildfires on water quality in streams and rivers. Since Salem gets its drinking water from the Santiam River, this certainly is something city officials need to be monitoring. See:
"Legacy of severe wildfires on stream water quality"
"The legacy of a severe wildfire on stream nitrogen and carbon in headwater catchments."
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