Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Transportation Officials. He said they have established standards for sampling that are clear and objective that when sampling deposits of this kind, one must separate units of rock of different character. He said that EGR mixed the two. He commented if the lower part alone fails the test, then under his reading of the rule, it would mean it would not pass the significance criteria under the rule. Reed stated in response to that criticism, EGR took some new samples. He said they responded by getting laboratory tests on the lower unit alone, but their tests only took six and a half feet of material out of a total of 35 feet. He said that was a failure of representative sampling, as it calls for sampling all of the material over the interval. He commented that all or part of the lower 35 feet of the rock may fail the test. Reed noted in their final rebuttal before the Planning Commission, EGR contended wrongly that the standards “state that it is preferable to sample the rock as processed as it will be used to assure that it will meet the standards in its ready to use state.” He thought that was an incorrect reading of the standards. He said they took part of the standards on the sampling of processed rock. He noted there is another standard that addresses the sampling of rock in the ground instead of rock that had been processed. He said there is nothing in the OAR that would disallow the processing of the rock prior to testing it. He said they brought up the argument in context of trying to justify mixing the full extent of their sample. He said if they process it before they test it, they are biasing the result. He said in today’s testimony they brought up new work by ODOT in relation to the DOGAMI opinion. He commented that DOGAMI in their opinion fails to address the sampling issues he is raising. He said they defer to ODOT. He said ODOT does testing, they don’t do geology. He indicated in his review of the ODOT sampling, that they referred to late in the testimony today, it appeared that is not a representative sampling to address before the closure of testimony. He said from what he had seen tonight, the ODOT samples are not representative because they are not all inclusive. He commented there is a resource of lava that they could mine and they don’t need to take high quality farmland for aggregate. Dr. Steven Kimberly, Eugene, stated he is a board certified specialist in internal medicine and works full time for WebMD creating health risk appraisals. He reported for the past ten years he had specialized in health risk evaluations and research. He stated he had 25 years as a physician. He discussed rock dust. He said that rock dust pneumoconiosis is the name for the disease in quarry workers and others who have been exposed to significant amount of rock dust over a significant period of time. Rock dust pneumoconiosis is a type of emphysema. He said there are two measures of dust they use for evaluating particulate matter: PM 2.5 and PM 10. He commented that particulate matter of that size is invisible to the naked eye. He said there would be no assurance that that dust was not being carried as PM 10 as far as ten to thirty miles and PM 2.5 particles could travel farther. He said PM 10 particles are larger and tend to get stuck in the sinuses and the upper airways and don’t make it down to the lungs. He added PM 2.5 goes down into the lungs and can cause significant lung damage if enough is breathed in. He explained there is a difference between the organic dust they see from agriculture and inorganic dust that is rock dust. He said that inorganic dust cannot be broken down by Page 9 – Joint Elected Officials' Meeting – December 12, 2006 WD bc/m/06121/T