02/01/1978 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e M I NUT E S EUGENE CITY COUNCIL February I, 1978 Adjourned meeting from January 25, 1978, of the City Council of the City of Eugene, Oregon, was called to order by His Honor Mayor Gus Keller at 11:30 a.m. on February 1, 1978, King's Table, Oakway Mall, with the following Council members present:D. W. Hamel, Ray Bradley, Tom Williams, Eric Haws, Jack Delay, Scott Lieuallen, Brian Obie, and Betty Smith. e I. Items from Mayor and Council A. EPA Clean Air Act Amendment of 1977--Mr. Delay reported on a recent meeting regarding revisions made by Congress. It is obvious that the amendments reaffirm the Federal intention that State and local jurisdictions make more favorable progress. Methods to be used would be to allow jurisdictions more time and to enact stricter laws. Also, EPA said Congress is trying to raise air pollution as a priority item among jurisdictions. As it relates to Eugene, revisions will have to be prepared and submitted by January I, 1979, and adopted by July 1979. A more stringent offset policy will be employed, as well as legal requirements for reasonable further progress. An offset policy is one in which a company must agree to reduce its present pollution by an amount greater than what it would add with a new plant expansion. Every year during this process, a city will have to demonstrate it is making progress toward attaining the goals by 1982. If a jurisdiction is not making progress, then sanctions will come into effect. Mr. Delay noted those sanctions could be brought by individuals. Principal sanctions used might be a total ban on con- struction or withholding of Federal funds for such things as mass transit. This raises a question regarding industrial growth, and two vehicles were suggested by EPA: I} offset policy; and 2} excess planning mechanism. Mr. Delay said this underlines the importance of the decisions to be made by Council to demand the existing Burning Limitations and Plan be upheld in good faith. In answer to a question from Mr. Lieuallen, Mr. Delay said there were many people working on these problems, and primarily on the intrusion problems from field burning. He noted Eugene has a situation which is different from other parts of the country, in that Eugene has a problem of parti- culates in the air versus such things as auto emissions, which are problems elsewhere. B. Energy Conservation Award--Mr. Obie presented to Greg Page a lamp constructed by the Junior Achievement group, to recognize Mr. Pagels efforts at energy conservation. c. Presidency of L-COG Board--Mr. Haws, having served as the Vice- President of the L-COG Board the past year, had been asked to serve as President, an honor he declined. Some concern had been expressed - 2/1/78--1 '3