Softball:
St. Helens Kung Fu
TODAY’S WEATHER Chance of Rain Highs to 74 Page A12 Lows to 51
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returns to Rainier Page A13
wins at martial arts tournament Page A6
Classified Ads A9-11 • Legal Notices A10-11 • Obituaries A6 • Opinions A4 • Out & About A7 • Calendar A7 • TV Guide A8 • Sports A12-16 • Weather A12
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
The Chronicle
$1 Vol. 134, No. 23 16 Pages
www.thechronicleonline.com
Local districts to check school water
CODY MANN/The Chronicle
Jonah Ulyak tests his lifesaving skills on a CPR simulator at the Emergency Preparedness Fair.
BY JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net
Concerns about the safety of the drinking water in Portland public schools have spread to Columbia County and triggered testing at local schools. “Because of the situation in Portland public schools, we have reviewed our process and will be completing these tests in a timely manner,” Clatskaine School Superintendent Lloyd Hartley said. “Our maintenance supervisor is working with the city to provide for these tests, hopefully within the month.” The Portland schools drinking water crisis unfolded in April following reports in media outlets of lead levels exceeding federal safety standards. According to the World Health Organization, too much lead can damage various systems of the body including the nervous and reproductive systems, the kidneys, and it can cause high blood pressure and anemia. The lead can be found in lead piping. The Portland public schools get water from the City of Portland through the Bull Run watershed. Several of the Portland schools turned off the fountains and began providing bottled water to the students pending further testing. Hartley said while the Clatskanie District conducts the tests, the schools’ drinking fountains
See WATER, Page A4
Are you ready for a disaster? visited since grade school. So, where are you safest when the ground starts to shake? According to Della Fawcett, a geologist and environmental consultant, you should find a sturdy table or chair to shelter under, and hang on to it until the quake stops. A doorway is essentially a hole in a wall, and Fawcett said the lack of structural support makes it less desirable, but still safer than going outside during the shaking. However, it is also important to be mindful of a swinging door, which could cause injuries with enough force. The United States Geological
BY CODY MANN cmann@countrymedia.net
How many of us remember being told to stand in a doorway if we are caught in an earthquake? Generations of children learned this basic safety tip in school. It turns out the door is one of the least safe places in a building to ride out a quake. At the Columbia River Communities Emergency Preparedness Fair this past weekend, people had the opportunity to learn a number of survival preparation skills and techniques, a subject some had not
jobs, according to Daughtry. It also helps preserve 96 jobs at the St. Helens plant by providing a ready customer for their products. Trucks will move the material between the locations. The third phase of the expansion calls for another 400,000 sq. feet of development under a $40 million investment in Scappoose. “I really want to acknowledge the efforts of Sen. Betsy Johnson and County Commissioner Tony Hyde,” Daughtry said. “They were instrumental in helping us close this very complicated and competitive deal; they were looking at a bunch of other sites, so we had to work hard to get them to come here.” The project was sent to the Scappoose Planning Commission and was scheduled for a site development review on June 16. Construction is set to begin in July 2016. Daughtry said there would be an enterprise zone agreement for the project.
Big things are coming down the road to Columbia County. Manufacturing business, higher education, research and development, and more may provide a much-needed infusion of revenue and development.
Courtesy photo
or anything that might come down. Fawcett said steering clear of downed power poles is particularly noteworthy because you may not be able to see loose power lines until it is too late “It is survivable,” Fawcett said. “It is scary, and people need to know the science behind it, but it is survivable.” The Big One In the Pacific Northwest, we sit upon a convergent plate boundary; the Juan de Fuca Plate, a small plate adjacent to the larger Pacific
See DISASTER, Page A4
Manufacturing and research Vessel owners fined for facilities coming to county BY CODY MANN cmann@countrymedia.net
Clatskanie, Rainier and St. Helens school districts are testing for lead in the schools drinking water systems.
Survey calls the method for riding out earthquakes Drop, Cover, and Hold On. The idea is you want to be as small as possible in a quake. “The reason doorways were thought to be so safe is because they were made out of wood, and most all old buildings were made out of unreinforced masonry,” Fawcett said. “So when a quake hit, the buildings would crumble and the doors would stand – not because they were safer, but because unreinforced masonry was so unsafe.” After an earthquake, move outside if possible, and stay clear of buildings, cars, power lines, trees
Cascade Tissue Cascade Tissue plans to build a state-of-the-art paper converting facility. It purchased a 50-acre parcel of land next to the Scappoose Industrial Airpark. According to Chuck Daughtry, Executive Director of Columbia County Economic Team, Cascade Tissue will invest $63 million during the first two phases of development, which includes a pair of buildings that will total 600,000 sq. feet. Daughtry said $4.5 million of the investment would be directed to operations at the St. Helens facility. Paper rolls will be manufactured in the St. Helens plant and converted into consumer products at Scappoose plant. “Part of the investment here is that it gets the two manufacturing facilities unified,” Daughtry said. The expansion creates 70 new
pollution violations A St. Helens man was fined $110,677 by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for polluting the Columbia River. DEQ fined Clay Jonak of Longview and Roger Ison of St. Helens $110,677 for asbestos, solid waste and water quality violations occurring at the submerged land lease site they both control in Columbia County. The site is
Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center will be a dual-location
See MANUFACTURING, Page A4
near river mile 75 on the Columbia River, approximately a half-mile upstream and to the southeast of Goble. DEQ said it cited Jonak and Ison, owners and operators of the leasehold, for violations of Oregon laws that prohibit the accumulation of solid waste, the open accumula
See RIVER QUEEN, Page A6
DON PATTERSON/The Chronicle
DEQ fined a St. Helens man for numerous infractions involving his operations near Goble.
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