Editor,
I believe Eric Temple of Portland Vancouver Junction Railroad is dishonest and untrustworthy. His disregard for the citizens, waters and sensitive lands of our county is brazen. His disregard for local, state and federal regulatory agencies is alarming. I believe he intends to turn Clark County into an industrial wasteland and has explained away the need to haul hazardous materials through our towns with the shrug of his shoulders. He has gutted sensitive wetlands and ignored the agencies that are placed for their protection. I witnessed his carelessness first hand. My property is right across from where his company built a road through wetland. My family watched out of our windows while they laid a road directly on top of the creek bed that flows into the stream on our property. Downstream was filled with sediment, the water has dried up, and hundreds of fish — including endangered coho and steelhead have died. I believe the COO of PVJR, Nathan Bruce, is completely unqualified to oversee any of the construction that has taken place. The agencies that have visited the site, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Ecology, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have all reported the failure and insist on remediation.
Chelatchie is the second place where he has done this, the area destroyed at Curtain Creek is far greater in scale. Eric Temple claims “diligence,” but all we have seen as his neighbor is negligence. The county must work to terminate the lease. This is corporate abuse of the environment, blatant violations of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, and we must not allow it to continue.
Brenna Collins
Amboy
