04/28/1986 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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. north campus area. She said the need for fields had only increased since those plans were adopted, adding that she hoped the commitment to providing adequate recreational facilities for students had not been abandoned. She said the loss of open space would effectively eliminate the potential for additional fields on campus and would impair the current opportunities and future growth of recreational sports activities. e Barbara Kelley, 540 Kingswood Avenue, said she was concerned about gradual poisoning of the groundwater. She said that every use of a toxic or radio- active substance was accompanied by a toxic waste problem, adding that she believed the project would use toxic substances. She also said every landfill was and would be a toxic waste dump until the generation of toxic wastes was stopped. She said many communities in Oregon and throughout the nation now had contaminated groundwater, and most people were informed of contamination only after consuming the water for years, if ever. Ms. Kelley said the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency had found contaminated breast milk in a majority of 1,500 samples, including some from Oregon. She said DDT had been found in all 1,500 samples. She also said blood samples from 3,000 persons had indi- cated that 99 percent were chemically contaminated. Ms. Kelley said she understood that an ordinance to protect groundwater had been requested, but no substantial progress had been made. She also said no real solution existed to protect the water and environment from toxic waste. Ms. Kelley said she did not think polluted rivers, darkened skies, and replacement of greenways and open space with asphalt and automobiles would improve the economic climate of Eugene. She noted that those conditions could be found in slowly dying communities across America and said she thought the "victims of the industrial age" were willing to travel and to pay for blue herons, osprey, clean rivers with fish, and open space. Ms. Kelley noted that cancer killed more children between the ages of three and 14 than any other disease, and affected three of four families in the United States. She said both the EPA and the World Health Organization had attributed 80 to 90 percent of the cancer epidemic to the environment. She also showed an article about one couple's lawsuit attempting to recover damages for a son's leukemia death reportedly caused by toxins in the water. She asked councilors to "come to their senses" while the project still could be stopped. . Mayor Obie closed the pUblic hearing. Pat Decker of the Planning Department responded to comments. She said the primary paper addressing open space issues in the Metro Plan was not the Natu- ral Assets and Constraints paper, but the Parks and Recreation working paper. She said that National Recreation and Parks Administration standards were used in developing that paper. Ms. Decker said a comprehensive plan did exist for parks and recreation and open space planning in Eugene, and that was the adopted Eugene Parks and Recreation Master Plan, which served as a refinement to the Metropolitan Plan. She added that the Parks and Recreation Department felt citizens of Eugene had asked for a parks, recreation, and open space standard exceeding the national standard, and an additional 644 acres were earmarked for acquisition. She noted that although the riverfront property had been considered in the master plan, it had not been indicated as an area MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 28, 1986 Page 8