From West by Northwest.org Letters to the Editor August Mail: It is Frenchglen and Grateful to the Jury By J Stearns and M.G. Hudson Aug 7, 2004 Hi, Enjoyed your website offering about The Other Oregon: Exploring Abert Rim, Hart Mountain and the Steens Mountain by Jim and Brooke Stone Clement. The Other Oregon is a very great place to live. However, you might want to correct your spelling in the Steens Mountain portion. Frenchglen is never spelled French Glen. Sincerely, J. Stearns A Desert Rat Editor answers: Dear Desert Rat, Thanks for the heads-up on the correct spelling for Frenchglen. You are right. Different maps show different spellings but the definitive Oregon Place Names book agrees with you, of course. We will wait for webmaster to do this correction. The last time editor uploaded an addition in that program, I scrambled some of our graphic codes which we are still unscrambling! We are grateful you wrote about this fine piece so more new readers can see it. Thanks. Write again Dear Editor: After years of dealing with the effects of living nearby the Izaak Walton League Shooting Range and having no meaningful redress of the problems, we went to court. We had to show both personal and public harm. The jury found that the public harm of polluting the South Fork of Spencer Creek was the foremost issue, a public nuisance, and we agree. Ron Merrow's harm was also well documented. The fact that the jury did not award more damages is secondary: our purpose was to get court help to enforce the laws of the State of Oregon and that process has begun. We are grateful to the jury for their work and their stand against pollution of public waterways. It was not an easy case. Due to statutes of limitations, we couldn't refer to anything that happened over six years ago. So in court, many of our complaints and testimonies were disconnected from their history. There were many facts. The jury found the Shooting Range liable for Public Nuisance- for harming the public interest by polluting the South Fork of Spencer Creek with lead, arsenic, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and other toxic waste from shooting. Also Negligence per se- for violating Oregon's stream pollution laws, Trespass- for the toxic waste flowing downstream through the Merrow property and Damages to the Merrow's for polluting their property. Many good people are involved with the IWL and may not have realized the serious and ongoing problems of the lead pollution. Now, with the jury's help, many know the Izaak Walton League's Eugene Chapter must clean-up its act. Literally. M.G. Hudson © Copyright 2000-2004 by West by Northwest.org