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…