Over a year after the Environmental Protection Agency sought permission to designate longtime Eugene wood processing plant J.H. Baxter as a Superfund site, the agency has received funding to move forward according to federal court documents.
The company — which was shuttered in January 2022 — was found to have illegally disposed of toxic wastewater from wood-preserving processes by evaporating it into the air, an operation that federal prosecutors alleged contaminated much of the Bethel neighborhood in west Eugene. Prosecutors later said J.H. Baxter vented more than 1.7 million gallons of chemical-laced wastewater between 2019 and 2021.
Bethel area residents had been complaining for years about bad odors and pollution, with some reporting alleged health impacts from the contamination. Environmental groups and state officials had also called for stronger action as testing revealed widespread contamination…