Corps issues permit for DAG Trusts Partnership (Hyundai).

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 1995--The Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, issued a permit today to D.A.G. Trusts Partnership (DAG) for the eventual filling of up to 10.4 acres of wetlands.

DAG is preparing the approximately 205-acre site, located southwest of the Eugene city limits on Willow Creek Road and West 18th Street, for sale to Hyundai Electronics America (Hyundai) for construction of a semiconductor fabrication plant. When constructed, the plant will occupy 75 acres--the size of phases 1 and 2 only. The permit authorizes construction of only phases 1 and 2 of the three phases proposed.

Because of the substantial reduction in the amount of wetlands that would be filled, the mitigation plan, and the environmental safeguards imposed by all of the regulating agencies, such as the elimination of phase 3, no environmental impact statement will be required with this permit.

The decision to issue the permit without requiring an EIS was based on a review of the project under the National Environmental Policy Act.

"In our review, we looked at whether there are, as it says in our guidance, significant impacts on the quality of the human environment. After our evaluation of all the information we gathered, plus that provided by members of the public, other agencies and Hyundai, we concluded there would not be significant impacts on the human environment and we will not require an EIS," said the Corps' Portland District Commander, Col. Tim Wood.

This application has been under review since June, when DAG submitted its permit application. The Corps gathered an immense amount of supporting information from various sources, including comments from Aug. 16 and Aug. 23 public hearings, written testimonies, Hyundai information and other agency comments.

"Today's permit issuance follows many months of public interest review, detailed study and evaluation of the proposed project in accordance with the applicable federal laws and regulations," Wood said. "This permit includes a number of conditions, which are directly related to the impacts of the proposed activity, are appropriate to the degree of those impacts and are reasonably enforceable," he said.

The conditions include mitigation requirements, timing of construction and monitoring reports as "environmental safeguards," Wood said. "We considered all the comments and looked at the information before drafting the conditions we felt would best protect the resources affected."

Examples of conditions developed in response to public comments include requirements for the applicant to: conduct another survey for the endangered plant, Lomatium brashawii, during the upcoming blooming period and to take further steps to protect against impacts to the plant if warranted; insure that discharges from the site parallel historical stream flows, both in quantity and quality; and to successfully replace more wetlands than will be filled.

This permit is one of several permit applications to fill wetlands in the west Eugene area, which the Corps has been reviewing. Other applications include the Cone Investment Co.'s application for construction of the Greenhill Technology Site, which was recently approved, and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) application for the construction of Phase 1 of the West Eugene Parkway.

Wood said the Corps is in the early stages of evaluation for the ODOT application and anticipates a decision on that application sometime this winter. While the final permit decisions on all pending applications cannot be made simultaneously, the processing, evaluation and decision making with regard to each is being accomplished by the same Corps staff and management team to insure consistency in the final decision.

CONTACT: Heidi Y. Helwig, 503/326-6005