Air quality progress planned by Baxter.

Byline: Christian Wihtol The Register-Guard

The J.H. Baxter & Co. wood treating plant in Eugene will provide air-quality regulators with a list of proposed pollution abatement measures within about 30 days, the first step to reaching a formal work plan, Lane County's top air-quality official said Monday.

Once the company and the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority hash out a draft plan on how to cut creosote fumes from the factory, the agency will probably seek public comment, added Brian Jennison, the agency's director.

"Baxter has agreed to put together a list of engineering fixes which they think they can do," Jennison said.

Jennison made his remarks after Baxter employees and neighbors spent more than an hour addressing the LRAPA board about the Roosevelt Boulevard creosoting factory and its air emissions. About 30 people interested in the Baxter controversy packed the small board meeting room and adjacent hallways at LRAPA's Springfield headquarters for the board's noon monthly meeting.

Pressured by complaints from dozens of residents, LRAPA earlier this month notified Baxter that chemical odors from the plant constitute a "suspected nuisance." Baxter has been trying to minimize the fumes since the mid-1990s. But a growing number of residents from nearby neighborhoods are complaining to LRAPA that Baxter's steps have been ineffective. Some also say that creosote fumes from the plant appear to have increased in recent months.

Plant manager Gary Hunt said that the plant's output of creosote-treated wood is up about five percent this year from 2002. "We are driven by the market," he said, noting that the factory is now producing more utility poles to replace poles burned in the California wildfires.

A string of Baxter workers told the LRAPA board that they value their jobs and don't want Baxter to shut down.

"Are we willing to lose jobs and destroy livelihoods?" asked Gene Hall, a 15-year Baxter employee who works as a helper in the factory's boiler room. The factory has about 50 employees.

"All of our jobs are at stake," said Marvin Owens, a 20-year Baxter employee.

The lowest-paid job at Baxter is at $14.86 an hour, Hunt said. But some residents responded that they don't want Baxter to shut down - just to use some of its profits to clean up its fumes.

LRAPA board member Betty Taylor said she was puzzled by talk of the company shutting, and wondered how valid it was.

Hunt responded: "There certainly is no threat of us closing.

"Certainly we're going to try to fix the problem," Hunt added, "but the pockets of this company are only so deep."

The privately held California-based firm doesn't disclose sales or profits.

In the treating process, Baxter puts batches of ties, posts, beams and other wood products into big metal cylinders that are then sealed shut and filled with creosote or other chemicals. Baxter in recent months has installed equipment to capture fumes that it previously vented from the cylinders into the air. But fumes also get into the air when the cylinders are opened to remove treated wood, and when the treated wood is stacked outdoors prior to shipment. Baxter is testing possible solutions, Hunt said.

The fume emissions don't violate the company's air pollution permit from LRAPA, which allows the firm to vent an estimated 5,320 pounds of hazardous air pollutants from the treatment process.

But the fumes may violate LRAPA's nuisance ordinance - a rule the agency has never used before.

Under the nuisance ordinance, LRAPA and Baxter will work to develop a "best work practices agreement."

Hunt said he fears Baxter will spend heavily on solutions, but neighbors will still complain that they dislike the smell from the plant.

"We need to see that there is an end point," Hunt said.

Under the LRAPA code, a nuisance is an air emission that causes "substantial and unreasonable interference" in peoples' enjoyment of their property.

Jennison said he'll know Baxter has reached "an end point" when the volume of complaints from neighbors declines.

"If they go significantly down, it would be ended. If they remain high, it would not be ended," Jennison said.