Dusty times put gravel makers in the pollution thick of it.

Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

The hot, dry wind and the busy construction season have led to disagreements between Eugene gravel companies and the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority over how much dust abatement is enough.

Air pollution enforcers have handed out citations - leading to $1,000 fines - to three of four gravel companies with quarries near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers on the north side of the city.

Residents of the Cal Young and Santa Clara neighborhoods complain every summer about dust that coats their cars and patio furniture.

Pollution enforcers document the problem with photographs of dust on roads near the gates of mining operations, roiling up behind passing cars and trucks. Other clouds arise from scattered construction sites as graders and gravel trucks do their work.

All of the sand and gravel companies try to stop the dust, as required by air pollution rules.

"It's a problem for all of them, but for some it's worse than for others," LRAPA enforcer Tom Freeman said. "It's a tremendous headache."

Dust gets in your eyes

Actually, from a nationwide perspective, the local sand and gravel companies are lucky. In most years, Mother Nature provides them dust control through the winter months with a steady drizzle - but this year was different.

From last October to April, Oregon got less than half its normal rainfall, so the dust was dried and ready for early flight.

Big construction projects were going gangbusters in the meantime - a new federal courthouse, major freeway reconstruction - and that brought a steady stream of trucks in and out of the quarries.

The busy gravel companies weren't necessarily paying attention to the dust, Freeman said. If they were, they would have gotten out their water trucks and taken up where the rains left off.

"The weather changes and suddenly they get caught unawares," he said.

Inspectors cited Delta Sand & Gravel for raising dust on Jan. 11 and then again on Jan. 13. Egge Sand & Gravel followed on March 30. Wildish Sand & Gravel was dinged on April 19 and May 11.

Egge and Delta are contesting their citations.

Delta officials said they couldn't use water to knock down the dust on the road outside the plant last January because the temperature was too close to freezing and might cause a hazard for motorcycles or cars.

Delta is in negotiation with LRAPA to somehow resolve the issue, Delta risk manager George Staples said. The company is not inclined to accept the fine - even if it were reduced.

"We are not really interested in it because we are very conscious of our reputation in the community for doing things the right way," he said.

"We felt that we had done everything possible under the circumstances that was reasonable and don't feel a citation is justified," he said.

The company said it spent $110,000 last year on watering and sweeping the dust inside and on roads outside the plant.

"Part of the frustration is at what point do we become reasonable in the eyes of LRAPA?" he said. "We're not throwing nickels at this thing. We're serious about the problem."

Egge officials go the furthest in their defense.

They are accusing LRAPA of "selective" and "vindictive" prosecution, according to legal briefs in the air agency records. The company's attorney has asked to review one inspector's personnel records and his field notes from dozens of cases.

Owner Vern Egge said his company may have been blamed for dirt that another company tracked onto Coburg Road. At the time, he was leasing part of his gravel pit to Morse Brothers and to Mainline Paving, which reconstructed Interstate 105 this spring.

He declined specific comment on the case, but voiced displeasure with LRAPA.

"They seem a lot more aggressive in their enforcement activity than they have in the last year or two," he said. "We've done a pretty good job on dust abatement. It's impossible to eliminate all dust. That's just not achievable."

A hearings official will consider the Egge case on Sept. 1.

All of the four urban sand and gravel companies have been cited repeatedly by LRAPA inspectors over the past 30 years, but it was Egge who in 1992 drew the single biggest fine ever levied by the agency. The company was charged with burning more than 6,000 cubic yards of demolition waste - including asbestos and tires - after LRAPA denied the company a burning permit. The original fine was $45,000. The company eventually paid $10,000.

LRAPA issued two other citations this spring, both to Wildish Sand & Gravel, although the agency has yet to issue a fine. Randall Hledik, director of general services, said the company - in general - strives to keep dust under control.

"We don't water it down just to avoid being in violation," he said. "We've got to be good neighbors with the residential area that's right up next to us."

Of the urban gravel companies, only Eugene Sand & Gravel remains without violation this construction season.

"That's your headline," joked Mike Alltucker, president of Eugene Sand & Gravel.

In 2003, the company was blocked from opening an additional gravel mine, in part on fears that it couldn't control the dust.

"This is good. Now I can say to people, `See. See what I told you,' " he said. "We work hard at it. It's an expense we've chosen to make part of our operations."

Eating dirt

From the neighbors' point of view, the dust is more nuisance than health threat, said Merlyn Hough, the acting LRAPA director.

The particles are large and chemically inert. Unlike the smaller particles in smoke soot, the dust particles don't get trapped down inside the lungs.

On the other hand, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns that even dust can be tough on the elderly, small children and people with impaired lung function. And the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration regulates how much dust mine workers can breathe.

But mostly it just bugs people.

"Summertime comes along and our cars are covered with it," said William Smith, who lives at Willamette Oaks Retirement Community on Goodpasture Island Road in Eugene. "It's pretty thick when you get outside."

Ann Treasure has been washing it off of her patio furniture for the 20 years she's lived in the Cal Young neighborhood.

"My patio roof is just covered up. I have to hire somebody to come wash it," she said. "You ask my neighbor. The same thing, they're complaining."

Retired backhoe operator Donny Parks, who lives in the River Road area, says he's eaten his share of dust and is loathe to nitpick. But he says the refrigerator that used to sit on his back porch -under an 8-foot overhang - would get so dusty in two or three days he could write his name on it.

He calls LRAPA when he thinks the gravel companies are kicking up too much dust.

The companies "are making tons of money. It wouldn't hurt them to keep it well watered down," he said.

Not all dust comes from mining operations. This time of year, agriculture contributes a large measure.

"The farmers from here to Portland are basically making talcum powder out of their fields," Freeman said. "With the prevailing winds, everything comes down here and drops out."

A way for the willing

But gravel mining operators can knock the dust down and protect their neighbors - if they spend the money and are willing to try, according to William Langer, a geologist with the Denver-based mineral resources team of the U.S. Geological Survey.

"Dust management certainly is a well developed art," said Langer, who writes on the subject for Aggregates Manager Magazine.

"Aggregate operations can control their dust and limit what leaves their site to whatever quality requirements the (air pollution) agencies ask," he said.

Industry "best practices" manuals describe how to use salt, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, petroleum products and soybean oil to keep the dust down.

Some companies have experimented with an acrylic co-polymer that acts as a sealant and suppress dust on the yard bed.

Some companies set up bumpy "rattle" bars for exiting trucks to drive over and drop the dirt from their tires. Many use car wash-like spray bars to clean their tires before leaving.

Simple, inexpensive changes, such as making sure the yard is dampened just before periods of busiest traffic, can help, Langer said. So can requiring trucks to drive slowly in and out of the yards.

Hough, at LRAPA, said it would help if local gravel companies formalized their watering protocols, so "everybody knows what the routine is, everybody is familiar with the drill."

"It's part of our job to remind them," he said. "Of course, our preference would be that their internal system would give them reminders so they were always on top of it."

Eugene Sand & Gravel, with no violations this year, makes each crew member responsible for dust control, Alltucker said. "It's part of their job."

Langer argues that it's imperative for gravel companies to go the distance on dust control - if only to dampen the fervor of an increasing number of mining opponents.

"Some of the more enlightened operators will go above and beyond the law and say, `We're getting a lot of complaints and we don't want that. We'll make changes so we won't get complaints because we would like to put another pit in here - down the road, as time passes - and we want to have a reputation of being responsive to the people,' '' he said.

CAPTION(S):

A Delta Sand & Gravel water truck washes down Division Avenue to control dust. LRAPA cited the company twice for dust levels in January.