Intel Seeks Permit From DEQ To Double Emmissions Of Hazardous Substances

A meeting of great significance on ZOOM this Wednesday will affect our Valley’s livability for centuries to come. Read On! Attend the Meeting!

In a recent Opinion piece delivered via the Forest-Grove News Times by Dale Feik, Chair of Washington County Citizen Action Network (WC CAN), we are all warned about what is planned for our valley.  As many of you read this, your financial futures and existence are tied to Intel Corporation and those companies that support it.  In many ways, mine does too.  But over the years, I have had to separate the ME that wants to make MONEY and the ME that wants to hold my kids and grandkids and safely enjoy life in Hillsboro.  We do not have to hate Intel or be somehow labeled an environmental nut to choose our kids and our lives over Money.   And there is no reason, beyond money, that Intel can not be more responsible or held accountable.

Can we have a safe Hillsboro?  Can Washington County residents, especially those of us downwind and near the Intel Fabs, be assured that Oregon’s biggest employer is not simultaneously feeding and destroying us?  History would tell us that the answer to those questions is quite ominous and sides against the better outcome.

Dale Feik is an exemplary individual.  I met him years ago as we worked together to grapple with the last massive expansion of Ronler Acres Intel.  That process was educational and Dale and others assisted Neighbors For Clean Air to settle a legal dispute with Intel.  Dale went on to help create Washington County Citizen Action Network.  Their work has been a lone voice in a State where the DEQ and others tend to look the other way when Big I is being bad.  Someone has to protect us from 24 hour off-put from this chemical plants that just so happen to make computer chips.

In Dale’s Opinion piece, which he provided for the Herald to run, he makes the following warning to all of us:

Intel is asking to more than double its greenhouse gas emissions to nearly 1.7 million tons per year, which would be more than 3 tons per minute. That would make Intel the largest greenhouse gas emitter in Oregon.

Intel’s current air permit allows it to emit the following amounts of toxic air contaminants and
are also asking to increase those amounts in tons per year:
 Nitrogen oxides from 197 to 402 tons;
 Carbon monoxide from 229 to 550 tons;
 Volatile organic compounds from 178 to 349 tons;
 Fluorides from 6.4 to 12.2 tons;
 Particulate matter (PM) from 41 to 67 tons;
 PM10 from 35 to 67 tons;
 PM2.5 from 31 to 55 tons.
The last two very small particulate matter emissions can go directly from your lungs into your
bloodstream and induce adverse health effects.

READ THE REST OF HIS OPINION HERE

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN TO GET INVOLVED- AT LEAST GET EDUCATED –

COME TO ONLINE MEETING – OCTOBER 11th, 2023 ONLINE ON ZOOM

DEQ invites the public to attend a virtual (Zoom) information meeting on
Intel’s application for a permit modification at their Ronler Acres and
Aloha campuses located at 2501 NE Century Blvd., Hillsboro, and 3585 SW
198th Ave., Aloha, respectively.
Meeting details

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 6 p.m.

Join on Zoom at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87612273899?pwd=dXVwQXlFYnJVdmRxei81TlV5SEJBZz09

Or by phone: 833-928-4609

Meeting ID: 876-1227-3899 Passcode: 073031

NOTES FROM DALE about this meeting:

Who will be in the meeting:

1. Mike Rogoway, of the Oregonian, told me he would listen in.

2. Mary Peveto (neighbors for Clean Air executive director who, with NWEDC, threatened to sue Intel because of their fluoride emissions being emitted over 30 years without a valid permit to do so and because Intel continued to build Ronler Acres without a valid construction permit – outcome: a Settlement Agreement and a Good Neighbor agreement with Intel – I served on the Settlement Agreement and Good Neighbor agreement team but resigned because it was Intel dominated.

3. DEQ air permit specialist will be on the Zoom call

4. Nina DeConcini, DEQ NW regional Administrator, was brought out of retirement, and she is solely responsible for the communication of Intel’s application for a Prevention of Significant Deterioration Air permit that Intel refused to apply for even when Thomas Wood, Intel’s outside attorney, wrote letters to DEQ saying they would. Intel ended up applying for an Air Contamination permit instead, which is what they are currently operating under.

Why: 

• Even though this is an informational DEQ/Intel meeting, people should know that DEQ will send out an official notice of Hearing when DEQ has okayed Intel’s application.
• Rally the people and let DEQ know they are concerned about Intel’s’ toxic/hazardous emissions, especially since Intel is asking to double and triple some of their current emissions.
• Why doesn’t Intel change its manufacturing procedures so they do not have to emit so many hazardous substances?
• The updated notice changes the numbers of the emissions.
• Why not wait until Intel is called into the Cleaner Air Oregon program before issuing this Prevention of Significant Deterioration air permit.

The link to read Intel’s hazardous air permit application is:

https://www.oregon.gov/deq/Programs/Pages/Intel.aspx.

To Learn more about Intel and other toxic/hazardous polluters in Washington County,  click on the following two websites.

Washington County Citizen Action Network (WC CAN)

http://www.wc-can.org/  ** active links at the top of the page

Hillsboro Air & Water –http://hillsboroairwater.or