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QuickTake:
The EPA has removed 2,485 cubic yards of soil and 8,100 gallons of water over the last month from J.H. Baxter. As of Oct. 11, the EPA removed 2,485 cubic yards of soil and 8,100 gallons of water from the facility. Crews are contracted to be on site for a full year.
In its expedited cleanup at J.H. Baxter, the Environmental Protection Agency has unearthed so much contaminated water and soil at the Superfund site that it could cover the football field at Autzen Stadium.
And some of it smells.
The Baxter site in West Eugene treated wood products like telephone poles with pesticides to keep them from decaying. By design, those chemicals break down slowly, if at all. Among them is pentachlorophenol, associated with cancer risk, which the company mixed with oil in its treatment process. The plant stopped production in 2022, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated it as a Superfund site in 2025.
The EPA’s expedited cleanup is separate from the longer-term Superfund response, which could last for years.
Since starting the expedited cleanup Sept. 14, contracted crews have operated bulldozers to excavate tons of chemical-laden soil each week. In the exposed soils, oil would seep and accumulate in pits and pooled groundwater.
The week of Sept. 28, such excavation resulted in a strong odor, according to an EPA operational report.
“Removal work at the JH Baxter facility may cause odors to be released as crews dig into the contaminated soil and stockpile it on the property while we wait for sampling results to determine disposal methods,” EPA spokesperson Alice Corcoran wrote in an email to Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
Depending how toxic it is, the material could be hauled off-site, sealed in a repository on the property, or capped in place.
The EPA set up three air monitor stations around the work zone and the facility’s perimeter to watch for potential air pollution.
The monitors only run during cleanup operations. Their sensors can read for particulate matter — such as tiny pieces of dust — and volatile organic compounds — such as gases from oils.
Levels of volatile organic compounds have not exceeded the EPA’s safety threshold, according to Corcoran and operation reports from the last month. Particulate matter levels had some low-level spikes Oct. 7, when fog persisted throughout the morning. The Lane Regional Air Protection Agency received a complaint from a family living nearby J.H. Baxter that same day.
“Smelling odors from this work does not necessarily mean there has been an excess that warrants concern,” Corcoran said. “Some short-lived air quality impacts are typical on mornings like this (Oct. 7), and there was no risk to the crews and community during this time.”
For some longtime residents, the odors can be unnerving because of the plant’s legacy of pollution.
Nearly 10,000 people live within a mile of J.H. Baxter. In the years Baxter was operational, odor complaints were common, peaking with 762 complaints in 2004. At the time, one of the most frequently detected toxins in the air was naphthalene, a key chemical component of creosote, a chemical linked to tumor development when inhaled.
Naphthalene falls into the category of volatile organic compounds. Again, levels of those compounds have not exceeded EPA’s safety thresholds during the cleanup.
If air quality ever reached a level that endangered crews or the community, the EPA would shut down work and coordinate with the air agency to notify the public, Corcoran said.
As of Oct. 11, the EPA had removed 2,485 cubic yards of soil and 8,100 gallons of water from the facility. Crews are contracted to be on site for a full year.
