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Some
Like It Hot (But
Fish Don't)
Turning the Willamette River into a giant
Jacuzzi may appeal to California transplants, but it's hell
on the local fish.
That's why the Northwest Environmental Defense
Center is going to court this week in an effort to get a
couple of local paper processors to cool it.
The NEDC is filing an intent-to-sue notice
against Smurfit Newsprint Corp. and West Linn Paper Company,
which are just across the river from each other upstream
from Willamette Falls. The environmental group says the
companies are violating the federal Clean Water Act by dumping
tens of millions of gallons of overheated H20 into the Willamette
daily without a permit.
For their part, the companies were caught
off guard by the suit.
Penny Machinski, environmental engineer for
West Linn, says, "To the best of my knowledge, we are not
violating water-quality standards."
Until now, most litigation over Willamette
River quality has focused on chemicals, sewage and other
nasties that enter the waterway. That's all fine and good,
but even more important may be the temperature of the water,
and this may be the first lawsuit to force the issue.
"We intend it as a wake-up call that the Department
of Environmental Quality and the state need to pay attention
to temperature issues on the Willamette," says Brent Foster,
an attorney for the NEDC.
The DEQ says that to keep young salmon healthy
and happy, the Willamette and Columbia rivers should run
no hotter than 68 degrees. During the hottest part of the
summer, however, the average daily temperature in the Willamette
can reach 72 degrees. NEDC says part of the problem is companies
like Smurfit. Foster says water from the paper manufacturing
plant occasionally hits the river at more than 90 degrees.
According to the DEQ, high-temperature discharges
are allowed under certain conditions but require a wastewater
discharge permit. Neither of the companies has such a permit,
but plans are in the works to get them.
The lawsuit-toting environmentalists say there
isn't time to wait. "DEQ is doing nothing to substantially
reduce hot water going into the Willamette," says Foster.
"It's so clear: Hot water is really bad for salmon."
--Patty Wentz
Stringing
Them Along
Will local cable czar David Olson get naked and dance on
the podium? Probably not, but this week's Mount Hood Cable
Commission hearing still promises to be a lot more exciting
than most, as Olson and the commission hold court in front
of a quartet of aggressive suitors.
On March 16 the commission, which regulates all cable franchises
in Multnomah County, will sit in the Portland Building and
hear from four--count 'em, four--cable companies seeking
to go toe-to-toe with AT&T for the right to offer Portlanders
everything from high-speed Internet to telephone service.
"This is totally unprecedented," says Mary Beth Henry, deputy
director of the city's office of Cable Communications and
Franchise Management.
Although there is cable competition in cities like Boston,
it's commonly limited to two companies. So why are RCN,
Open Access Broadband, Wide Open West and Western Integrated
Networks willing to toss $500 million apiece onto the table
in Portland for the right to compete with AT&T? In part,
because they stand to make a bundle of cash. But also, because
of the perception that Portland--led by Olson and City Commissioner
Erik Sten--is the city that broke the chains of cable regulation.
This week's commission hearing is the first in a series
of legal steps each company must go through before it can
start stringing fiber-optic lines around Portland.
It's unlikely that the commission will do anything to slow
the companies down. What's less clear is who will survive
what's bound to be a Darwinian battle for the pocketbooks
of Puddletown's Netizens.
The Mount Hood Cable Commission meets March 16 at 6:30
pm in Meeting Room A, 2nd Floor, of the Portland Building,
1120 SW 5th Ave.
--Philip Dawdy
Will
Race for
Food
After opening a can of whup-ass on Bob Repine at Roth's
Supermarket in Salem, Gov. John Kitzhaber took a more aggressive
stand against the state's hunger crisis.
The March 10 race was pure media fodder: The governor and
Repine, chairman of the Interagency Coordinating Council
on Hunger, raced through the aisles, slamming food into
their shopping carts. The lithe governor gathered $269.09
worth of groceries to Repine's $176 during the 3-minute
race.
But after the cameras disappeared, Kitzhaber met with poverty
advocates to discuss recommendations he'd received that
day from the ICCH. Given the governor's slow response to
last fall's study showing that Oregon had a higher percentage
of hunger than the rest of the country, advocates were surprised
the governor agreed with everything on the list.
The first thing that needs to be done, according to the
governor, is to get food stamps in the hands of everyone
who qualifies for them.
Advocates have said the state Adult and Family Services
agency, which administers the food-stamp program for the
feds, is more interested in keeping people out of the office
than feeding them ("Fire in the Belly," WW, Feb.
23). The governor's office is now listening, calling for
increased food-stamp outreach, extended branch hours and
placement of food stamp workers at food box agencies, among
other things.
Kim Thomas, policy advocate at the Oregon Food Bank, says
it is a fundamental shift in the governor's approach. "He
made an admission that it's hard for people to get food
stamps," she says. "That's progress."
He also promised to make the earned income tax credit refundable,
which puts cash in the pockets of low-income taxpayers,
and push for federal legislation to expand the food-stamp
program.
The governor's change in attitude wasn't the only good
news for poverty advocates. Last week AFS granted permission
for volunteers to act as WalMart-type greeters and advocates
in the Southeast 39th Avenue and Powell Boulevard branch.
For years, activists have charged that potential clients
are turned away as soon as they hit the front desk at AFS.
The volunteers--part of a pilot program--will serve as AFS
tour guides to help people through the bureaucratic nightmare
of public assistance.
--Patty Wentz
Party
Crashing
Oregon's Pacific Green Party is readying itself for a sneak
attack. The likely aggressors aren't wily ranchers from
the Wise Use Movement but, rather, refugees from the Transcendental
Meditation™ movement founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Last month members of the Yogi-inspired Natural Law Party
crashed a Green Party convention in Seattle and tried to
get their presidential candidate, John Hagelin, listed as
the Greens' nominee. The Greens assumed they'd have no problem
putting consumer advocate Ralph Nader at the top of their
state ticket, but the NLP interlopers came within five votes
of ousting him.
The attempted Green takeover up north has Pacific Greens
in Oregon bracing themselves for a similar invasion at their
Salem convention April 15-16. Xander Patterson, the party's
co-chair, says, "We're discussing ways to protect ourselves
from those guys."
West Linn resident Rosemary Zazu, secretary of the state
NLP, said she has not yet heard whether the party will crash
the Green convention, "but we need to talk with National
about that, to see if that is a strategy."
In recent months Hagelin's followers have taken over Reform
Party caucuses in Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, meaning
Hagelin, not Pat Buchanan, will be the Reformers' presidential
candidate in those states.
Although such third-party cannibalism is a concern here,
Patterson says that overall the Oregon Greens have profited
from a shakeout among third parties. In 1998 the Reform,
Natural Law and Socialist parties lost their minor-party
status in Oregon after failing to pull 1 percent in any
electoral district. Some Socialists approached the Greens,
says Patterson, and now his party boasts a mailing list
of more than 5,000--as well as plusher digs on Naito Way,
better organization and more funding.
Best of all, Nader may have a pulse this time. Unlike four
years ago, Patterson says, "Ralph is running a very serious
campaign this time around."
In the meantime, the local Greens are mulling over how
they can change their bylaws to foil NLP invaders. Normally,
anyone registered under a party's name is allowed to vote
to decide the party's nominee. State election law doesn't
say whether you bar someone for saying "Om."
--Nick Budnick
Strength
in Numbers
If the 16 challengers to Mayor Vera Katz teamed
up to play her in soccer, they'd kick her butt. But in the
political arena, the record number of candidates--plus their
lack of money and credentials--all but dooms their chances.
Four years ago, with similarly weak and diffuse
opposition, Katz won the primary with 81 percent of the
vote. It's a safe bet she'll come close to that figure again.
To beat the odds--or at least make the race
a bit more interesting--many of Katz's challengers have
agreed on a novel strategy: They'll team up. Last Thursday,
seven met at a Chinese restaurant in Southeast Portland
and decided to jointly host public forums around the city
to discuss the ways they say Katz is screwing up.
One of the seven, Bruce Broussard, a North
Portland activist whose primary interest is increasing police
accountability, has promised to let all candidates air their
views using the radio time he's purchased on KKGT 1150 AM
out of Oregon City. He says the "Bruce Broussard Show" will
discuss mayoral politics every Sunday from 3 to 4 pm. He
also has a twice-monthly cable-access show on Channel 27
that will host the candidates. The first forum airs this
Thursday, March 16, at 8 pm.
"The way it's seen now, we are not serious
candidates," said Broussard. "But this is not a joke. We
are living in very serious times."
The guy hurt most by the last-minute influx
of mayoral candidates is Jake Oken-Berg, the 19-year-old
Pomona College student who has run the most aggressive campaign
of all of Katz's challengers (he's actively seeking endorsements
and has printed lawn signs and posted a Web site).
Oken-Berg said he hopes his opponents will
run serious campaigns and prove to be more than one-issue
candidates. "Anything less," he says, "pollutes the process."
--Nick Budnick
Murmurs
SCUTTLEBUTT
WITH AN EDGE
Sports promoter Marshall Glickman dodged
the proverbial bullet last week by finally signing a AAA
baseball team, the Albuquerque Dukes, to play in Civic Stadium.
Murmurs, which was first to predict the Dukes' arrival,
has heard that the team's new name may reflect its major-league
affiliation: The Portland Dodgers.
Talk about a creative way to avoid term limits:
Don't be surprised if Metro Executive Mike Burton
proposes a charter amendment to eliminate his own elected
post and replace it with an appointed administrator. In
exchange, Burton's plan reportedly calls for the council's
presiding officer to be elected region-wide.
Jefferson High's romp of Jesuit on its way
to the boys' state hoops title wasn't the only mismatch
on the court Friday night. Although a flea-like gymnast
for Jesuit gave it her best with a series of perky handsprings
up and down the Coliseum court, she was upstaged by the
Jefferson pep squad (made up of the Jefferson Dancers
and the modern dance lab), who stole the half-time show
with a hip-hop dance performance to Method Man and Goodie
Mob's "Get Rich to This."
A press release announcing an upcoming tour
by the Reverend Horton Heat, the location for the
band's April 18 Roseland show was listed as "Portland, CA."
Being confused with our Maine forebears is bad enough. But
has our territory now been annexed by Golden State warriors
as well?
Memo of the Week:
"Recently a member of your staff called our
staff requesting information on a variety of financial issues,
including how MERC handles the quarters that are received
from the tampon vending machines in the women's restrooms
at the Oregon Convention Center.
Enclosed for your convenience please find
a copy of OCC's Tampon Machine Procedures, which became
effective May 8, 1998."
--Mark Williams, general manager of the
Metropolitan Expo-sition-Recreation Commission.
Williams' March 7 memo--unearthed last week
by KXL radio reporter Dawn Phillips--was sent to Bruce Warner,
finance czar of MERC's mother agency, Metro. The exchange
of information, which is related to Metro's continued efforts
to draw more money from MERC facilities, caused Larry Harvey,
a lobbyist for the hotel industry, to quip, "I don't know
what's weirder, that Metro would ask for that [information]
or that [the Convention Center] would have a policy on that."
Corrections
In last week's Cheap Eats guide to inexpensive restaurants,
we mistakenly reported that Bill Craine owned Holman's with
his wife Judy. Though Bill and Judy are co-owners of the
Southeast Portland cafe, Judy is actually Bill's sister.
WW regrets the error.
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