Valley overrun by outside interests

To The Eagle:

Our once peaceful and "remote" over the hill valley seems to have become overrun by outside interests.

We now have NGOs voting (40 votes) on local flood control issues, when they are in the business of taking out dikes. To top that, it is with your tax and ratepayer money, that is fueling this NGO ownership of local land.

LCFRB wanted to install a plan for the valley without consulting the affected landowners. This is 10 years after a WDFW letter announced it wanted the whole valley to be flooded. WDFW was not allowed to buy up the valley, so instead they give grants for the NGOs (Columbia Land Trust), to do what they couldn't.

Now we have a concern with out of state (Oregon City), Bio-Solids, a fancy word for human waste, contaminated with heavy metals, pathogens, pharmaceuticals and many unknown detrimental factors, being dumped on flood plain in the valley.

Many states have outlawed land application of Bio-Solids, including Oregon. The site being proposed floods regularly and would threaten contamination of Grays river and the lower Columbia basin. Salmon restoration will be set back with this dump!

Cattle will not be allowed to graze for at least 30 days after dumping. Will the elk then graze and be contaminated to become off limit? This is after all going to be on "Elk Mountain Ranch" on Covered Bridge Road.

How can the Health Dept. expect anyone to apply for a septic permit when 5,000 gallons of waste can be dumped, with a little bit of lime to cover the smell? Can I run a pipe out in my field, flush with a little lime and be good to go? I think not, yet it is of much less consequence than the proposed dumping. Is it because we have a low number of voters on this side of the hill? New studies (2010) show more hazards with land application of Bio-Waste than has formerly been known.

Our land values will go down even further affected by this.

Poul Toftemark

Rosburg