Oregon
Oregon regulators cancel Zenith hearings, pausing Portland fuel terminal's permit process
Tank cars on the train tracks outside of the Zenith Energy oil terminal in Portland also contain a placard warning of toxic inhalation.
Tony Schick / OPB
Oregon regulators have canceled public hearings for a controversial fuel terminal in Portland.
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality staff say they conducted an unannounced inspection at Zenith Energy’s terminal on Wednesday. Inspectors concluded they needed more information from Zenith before considering its application for an air quality permit, which would have allowed it to continue storing and moving fuels between railcars, ships and pipelines.
DEQ subsequently canceled its two public hearings scheduled for November and December.
During the inspection, DEQ staff say it appeared Zenith had done construction work that was “more expansive” than they expected.
In 2020, Zenith installed a valve and welded pipe so it could start handling diesel and renewable diesel at another dock, called the McCall Dock. The company didn’t notify the state for three years. DEQ issued a warning letter in March 2024. This week was the first time DEQ staff were able to see the dock modifications for themselves.
“We’re very understaffed, and we have a lot going on,” said Lisa Ball, air quality manager in DEQ’s Northwest Region “So, we had not been out there to examine the construction that was on site.”
Ball said the inspector is completing a report of what they saw at Zenith’s terminal, which will be published on DEQ’s website when it’s complete.
The Houston-based company has been operating a fuel terminal in a Northwest Portland industrial area since 2018. It has since drawn intense opposition from many local environmental groups and Portlanders, who have criticized Zenith for violating multiple local regulations.
An activist with the environmental action group Extinction Rebellion watches over a protest garden planted near the tracks of Zenith Energy’s oil-by-rail terminal in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday, April 21, 2019.
Bryan M. Vance / OPB
Ball credited people who have publicly raised their concerns about Zenith for Wednesday’s decision.
“I really thank the community for their continued engagement and support in this permitting process. You know, it was their questions and comments that led us to further investigate,” Ball said. “I just really hope that they can see that the information that they provided to us was helpful and it really led us to take action.”
DEQ staff say they will schedule another public information meeting by early December, where they will share more information about the inspection and next steps.
FALLS CITY, Ore. — A 63-year-old was sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a man with a shotgun during a fight at a Falls City, Oregon property back in 2024.
A jury convicted Terry Lawrence Allwen of second-degree murder back on March 20, the Polk County District Attorney’s Office said.
He was sentenced Friday to serve life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
READ MORE | ‘What kind of monster does that?’ mom says as man sentenced for daughter’s killing
Allwen was also convicted of other charges like manslaughter, assault, and felon in possession of a firearm, but the sentences for those crimes will be served concurrently with the life sentence.
Court records show that Allwen was staying in an RV parked on a property owned by the victim, 79-year-old Bo Johnson.
At about 9 a.m. on May 31, 2024, Allwen and Johnson got into a verbal fight over some personal property. During that fight, Allwen got a shotgun from his trunk and shot Johnson once, killing him.
“Mr. Johnson had many more years to spend with his family. His senseless murder destroyed the dreams and plans of so many that loved him. I hope that the fact Mr. Allwen today received the maximum possible sentence will bring the family of Mr. Johnson some relief and sense of justice.”
If Allwen is granted parole, the judge also ordered that he have a lifetime of post-prison supervision.
The Oregon Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a Lane County man who once photographed child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey and was convicted in 2021 on several child pornography charges.
Randall DeWitt Simons, 73, of Oakridge, was charged in 2019 with 15 counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse. He was later convicted on every count and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Simons was first arrested after authorities began investigating a report from a restaurant in Oakridge that someone had been using the restaurant’s Wi-Fi to download inappropriate and concerning images.
Law enforcement officers directed the business to track, log, and report all of the user’s internet activity to the investigating officer for more than a year, without a warrant.
Police tracked the computer’s IP address from the restaurant’s Wi-Fi system, which led officers to a man who lived near the restaurant and had given Simons a computer, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lane County Circuit Court. Investigators obtained a warrant to search the laptop in Simon’s home, relying on information they had collected over time. He was subsequently arrested.
On March 26, the court ruled warrantless internet surveillance on public Wi-Fi violates privacy.
In an opinion written by Justice Bronson D. James, the court held that the Oregon Constitution recognizes people have a right to privacy in their internet browsing activities and the right is not extinguished when they use a publicly accessible wireless network. It’s even true in cases where that access is conditioned on a person accepting a terms-of-service agreement that says a provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement, James wrote.
During criminal proceedings in the Lane County Circuit Court, Simons moved to controvert the warrant and suppress the evidence obtained by police, arguing the business was a “state actor for purposes of Article I, section 9, and that its year-long warrantless surveillance was an unconstitutional, warrantless search attributable to the state,” the Supreme Court opinion said.
The Circuit Court denied Simon’s motion. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision in part and stated Simons had no cognizable privacy interest in his internet activities performed on a third-party network.
The Oregon Supreme Court rejected the state’s argument.
“The mere fact that a person accesses the internet through a public network does not eliminate their Article I, section 9, right to privacy in their online activities,” according to James. “Even when access is expressly conditioned on a user’s acceptance of terms-of-service provisions purporting to alert the user that the provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement.”
Justice K. Bushong suggested in a partial dissent the Court should reconsider its approach in a future case to what constitutes a “search” under the Oregon Constitution. The court’s decision reverses the Court of Appeals and sends the case back to the Lane County Circuit Court for further proceedings.
Simons has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 2019.
Simons had been a photographer for 6-year-old Colorado beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey a few months before her still-unsolved 1996 murder, the Associated Press reported in 1998.
In October 1998, Simons was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in Lincoln County, Colorado. According to the book “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” by Lawrence Schiller, Simons was arrested in 1998 for allegedly walking nude down a residential street in the small town of Genoa, Colorado. Simons allegedly offered to the arresting deputy unprovoked, “I didn’t kill JonBenét.”
Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.
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