Add this to the Oregon City plant’s totals in the narrow Willamette Valley and you have a fair amount of acid rain, very little of which is required to attack forests and disrupt aquatic ecosystems. John Kowalczyk, DEQ’s supervisor of air planning, said the department has only briefly looked at the acid problem. He stated that the Cascade lakes are “very susceptible. It wouldn’t take much sulphur to make them go sour.” Kowalczyk noted some low pH’s (the lower the pH measurement, the higher the acid) have been recorded in Portland’s Bull Run watershed, but DEQ isn’t sure why. Acid rain was reported to be one of the possible causes of discoloration of Oregon’s once-pristine Crater Lake. The national press, including the usually conservative Sports Illustrated, has been calling acid rain a serious threat to North America's forests, fish, wildlife and man. The magazine noted the Northwest is particularly susceptible to acid rain ... 70 percent of the rainfall monitored in Seattle was acidic, as were 24 of the 68 lakes sampled in the Olympic Mountains and Cascades near the city. Acid rain, the article continued, has destroyed fish life in 5,000 lakes in Sweden, seven Atlantic salmon rivers, and 1,500 lakes in southern Norway, usually by leaching toxic heavy metals from soil into fish habitats. Oregon officials admit acid rain wreaks havoc on aquatic ecosystems, especially microorganisms and young fish. Yet Fish and Wildlife biologist Irv Jones shrugged off the problem as mostly an East Coast phenomenon. “There could be some acid rain from Portland, but we don’t have any Ohio Valleys, Detroits or any of the coal-burning plants and industrial and domestic sources seen elsewhere. We’re pretty much home free in Oregon. ” Despite all of garbage burning’s problems, Metro has spent much of its considerable energies trying to convince people that the plant is a good idea. So far it has worked. In the face of vigorous public outcry, the Oregon City Planning Commission and city commission — with endorsements from the local school district and Chamber of Commerce — has approved land-use permits for the facility. Proponents of resource recovery defeated by 180 votes a citizens’ initiative which would have changed the city charter to require a vote of the people before any garbage-burning 11 will costfar more to bum our garbage than the energy we get from i t . . . four to five times more per ton than current landfill costs. facility could be built in the city. However, opposition has not died out. Oregonians for Clean Air, a Clackamas County environmental group, is seeking city charter changes in Oregon City, Gladstone and West Linn that would preclude the building of a garbage burner. Three initiatives are being circulated in the county that would limit ratepayer indebtedness, prohibit discharge of lead, mercury or cancercausing agents from any garbage burner in the county, and prohibit construction of a furnace or incinerator that burns solid waste within one mile of a public school, hospital or retirement home. Opponents are still confident they can stop the plant, despite the power and money arrayed against them. But if the plant is defeated, what are the alternatives? Surely we cannot keep burying our problems, hoping they will go away. From an environmental standpoint, landfills have been dismal failures. They often leach into ground water and assault the nose. Recycling can take care of part of the problem, but even the most optimistic of recyclers acknowledges that it would be difficult to recycle everything. A Gladstone councilwoman does take pride in the fact her family has never required garbage collection because they compost, recycle and avoid buying plastic containers. In the end it may come down to the lesser of two evils: better-run landfills and stepped-up recycling over expensive and hazardous garbage burners. Energy activist Lloyd Marbet feels Metro would be spending its time and money better influencing the Legislature to enact some strict packaging waste laws to keep a good deal of garbage from entering the system in the first place. “The problem of what to do with garbage, trash and refuse has become one of the most pressing problems of our modern civilization, ” Dr. Leveque told a legislative committee recently. “The problem is complicated by the advent of synthetic chemicals or plastics which have been incorporated into almost all materials we use and things we throw away. Some of these things are virtually indestructible. In the past, paper, natural rubber, cloth fiber and even ‘tin cans’ in trash dumps would eventually be destroyed by the natural action of bacteria, etc. This is no longer the case.” Leveque later told the committee: “A large trash-burning facility in a heavily inhabited area will be a crime to future generations.” g] THE COSTS By Jim Johnson he decision to build and operate a large garbage-burning facility carries a number of costly economic problems in its wake. In addition to SPECIAL OFFER for WORKING PARENTS The state-certified RAINBOWCHILD CARE CENTER offers a full-time learning experience for your preschool children (ages 2y2-6) during your regular workday and safe, adult supervision while you enjoy a night out. Just blocks away from Lloyd Center, the Coliseum, Holladay Park Hospital and minutes away from downtown. DROP-INS are welcome. GOOD, INTERESTING, USED BOOKSTORES Holland’s Books 3522 S.E. Hawthorne 232-3596 Uncommon Reader 3729 S.E. 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