Eugene Railyard Goals

On May 31st, the Superfund Health Investigation and Education Program (SHINE) of the Department of Human Serviices released an assesment that verified what Oregon Toxics Alliance and many Eugene residents already knew: that Union Pacific's West Eugene railyard operations contaminated the air, water, and soil of many nearby neighborhoods.

After SHINE's townhall, a coalition including OTA and various neighborhood groups met to identify a set of priorities that will best protect the health of residents of those neighborhoods.

The following "top eleven" short-term goals were adopted by consensus.

The Railroad Pollution Coalition advocates for the following actions:

1. Indoor air testing for all homes within the primary plume area, which is defined as the perimeter of the highest concentration of TCE and or PCE.
2. Protocol and implementation of testing for all homes in the primary plume area (“ground zero”) regardless of building construction: homes with crawl space, slab, basement or wood construction should all be tested.
3. Expansion of the crawl space air testing program for 6-10 homes just beyond the primary plume area (“second-tier zone”) to confirm that exposure to gases is well below established human health standards.
4. Indoor air testing program as recommended in the Superfund Health Investigation and Education Program (SHINE) report, page 15: “Efforts should continue to identify homes where crawlspace air testing indicates exceedances of health-based standards. These, and the homes already identified as having exceedances, should be tested for indoor air concentrations of PCE and TCE. In homes where the TCE or PCE concentrations exceed health-based standards, vapor barriers and/or ventilation systems should be installed to reduce the exposure to contaminated indoor air.”  (DHS Public Health Assessment Report UPPR)
5. The State Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) shall inform the public--including the RPC, renters, and property owners--of all testing results currently being conducted by Union Pacific (UP) consultants within 14 days of test results.
6. Lane Regional Air Protection Authority (LRAPA), working together with the City of Eugene and the DEQ, shall install an air toxics monitoring station in West Eugene in the area where industrial and residential zones meet.  All criteria pollutants and air toxics shall be measured.
7. Union Pacific shall research and implement an expansion of their ground water remediation program within the rail yard property to further reduce the plume’s migration to nearby neighborhoods.  Possible mitigation methods could include additional IRAM projects, soy curtains, trees that absorb toxic pollution, and other biological remediation techniques.
8. Union Pacific and DEQ shall provide timely public fact sheets about what ground water remediation efforts they currently have in place and are planning to implement in the future.
9. The Department of Environmental Quality should provide public fact sheets bringing the community up-to-date on the latest federal Environmental Pollution Agency (EPA) revisions to risk standards for PCE, TCE and vinyl chloride.
10. The Department of Environmental Quality should provide key fact sheets in Spanish and make available Spanish translation at all DEQ-sponsored public meetings so Hispanic residents can have equal access to information about the ground water and air toxics contamination, testing and remediation.
11. The Railyard Pollution Coalition will request a Eugene City Council work session for sometime in the early fall.