Trainsong’s Fuel Fear

After months of protest from local residents and environmental advocates, the city of Eugene denied a zoning application for a biofuel transfer station in Eugene’s Trainsong Neighborhood on Jan. 16.

Owned by USD Clean Fuels LLC, the proposed transfer station would have been located on Union Pacific Railroad property at 799 Bethel Drive. Community members said they feared that if approved, the station could introduce unwanted levels of noise, light and environmental pollution into the neighborhood.

“It’s a wonderful example of community and nonprofit organization partnership,” says Lisa Arkin, executive director of local environmental nonprofit Beyond Toxics. Arkin and Bethel community members had been fighting this proposed transfer station since June, when the Eugene Planning Division initially approved the zoning application.

Beyond Toxics and community members appealed the city’s decision to the Land Use Board of Appeals on Sept. 30, 2024, and the city withdrew its verification for reconsideration less than a month later on Oct. 18.

The city revoked the zoning verification for 90 days and opened a 14-day period for public comment. On Jan. 16, the Planning Division decided the site would create a significant regional disturbance and denied the application.

“The main concern was that the facility itself was literally across the street from homes,” Arkin says. Community members submitted more than 229 written comments to the city expressing their concern and disapproval of the station.

In an email to Eugene Weekly, USD Clean Fuels representative Mary Kilpatrick wrote on behalf of “the USD Clean Fuels Team,” that “USD Clean Fuels is carefully following all state and local permitting processes, including air permitting and is committed to being a good neighbor and a valued business in the community.”

USD Clean Fuels claims the facility would not produce any actionable noise levels and that a fuel spill of a reportable quantity is unlikely.

“This truly does show the power of community coming together,” Arkin says.

Community members say USD Clean Fuels failed to adequately communicate with impacted residents. The company distributed fliers and had a brief phone conversation with residents, but Arkin says it did not thoroughly address community concerns. “They never really answered our questions, and they didn’t care about our concerns,” Arkins says.

USD Clean Fuels, however, claimed it was working closely with community members to ensure a beneficial relationship was maintained. “Since August 2024, the company has worked to inform community members about the proposed facility by answering questions and speaking with community leaders,” the email from the “team” says.

With the denial of the application, advocates say they are excited that the Trainsong community was able to come together, and defeat an industrial development they saw as harmful to the neighborhood.

Arkin says Beyond Toxics and Trainsong residents will continue to fight against this transfer station if USD Clean Fuels tries to build this station elsewhere in Eugene or Springfield. “We would continue to fight this, anywhere in an urbanized area,” Arkin says, “This kind of facility has no place in a place where people live, work, play and go to school.”

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