Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice
In January 2019, Native Californian and Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice pushed through a dump fee waiver for multi-millionaire campaign donor Bruce Hanna, as reported in the March 30, 2019, issue of the Roseburg News-Review.
This waiver allowed Hanna to dump more than 1,000 tons of debris from the demolished two-story, 128-room Windmill Inn at 1620 NW Mulholland Drive in Roseburg, free of charge into the Douglas County dump, depriving the county with the lowest wages on the I-5 corridor of the much needed solid waste revenue.
Some sources say Hanna saved $48,645 in dump fees. But others believe Bruce Hanna actually saved millions by depositing 1,069 tons of construction debris in the only dump in Douglas County, free of charge.
As part of the demolition process, the building was donated to the local fire department so firefighters could use it to practice techniques like window entry—and so Bruce Hanna could get a tax write off.
Most Douglas County residents remember that the dump used to be free to the public.
Historically this discouraged people from dumping trash in forests and rivers.
Back in the days when timber companies paid timber taxes, Douglas County could afford free dump service, even though nearby Coos County charged hefty dump fees.
Since 1991, Douglas County has lost an estimated $355 million in Wall Street timber corporation severance tax revenue. By September of 2015, the county was so financially strained, commissioners Susan Morgan, Tim Freeman, and Chris Boice voted to institute dump fees. Within 60 days local newspapers reported, “The county has seen a 65 percent increase in littering calls since implementing a $3-per-can fee at the dump.”
Former Oregon State Representative Bruce Hanna contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the reelection campaign of Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman.
Once Chris Boice, a glorified Big O Tires grease monkey, was elected county commissioner, he used the power of his office to grant a personal favor to Hanna—an apparent quid pro quo payback for Hanna’s contributions to Freeman‘s campaign.
But the unfairness of Boice’s giving millionaire Bruce Hanna free dump privileges while others had to pay, rankled Douglas County voters. And then, in a notoriously unpopular and unforgettable move, Boice voted to increase dump fees for county taxpayers.
When longtime public works employee Larry Spielbusch demanded transparency from Boice about Hanna’s free dump privileges, Boice had Spielbusch removed from the Solid Waste Advisory Committee just hours before the issue was finally placed on the agenda.
Boice replaced Spielbusch with Dick Heard. One disgruntled voter applauded Spielbusch’s whistleblowing, posting on social media, “As for Spielbusch—Bravo sir for pulling the covers off of the corruption that permeates that courthouse! The Hanna’s are a member of the ‘club,’ so they don’t have to pay their fair share.”
The Douglas County landfill was built in the era before protective liners that prevent toxic “leachate” (percolated landfill liquid) from seeping into the soil and surrounding waterways.
In January and February 2019, without paying the county a dime, millionaire Bruce Hanna dumped 1,069 tons of debris from the demolished, two story, 128-room Windmill Inn motel into the county landfill.
This included thousands of sheets—literally tons of gypsum board (sheet rock).
Then it began to rain.
March 2019 turned out to be one of the wettest on record—nearly eight inches of rain fell in Roseburg.
The white gypsum powder inside the sheet rock boards began to decompose in the wet, low-oxygen anaerobic environment of the landfill, seeping into the groundwater and causing a chemical reaction that produced hydro-sulfuric acid, and hydrogen sulfide—a foul, rotten-egg-smelling, highly flammable, and harmful gas.
These chemicals acidified the leachate at the bottom of the landfill and increased dissolved heavy metal solubility, producing gases that kill the beneficial anaerobic bacteria—a living microorganism.
According to one study, “The reaction of leachate with gypsum can generate large volumes of hydrogen sulfide, which may be released in the leachate and may also form a large component of the landfill gas,” which is primarily composed of methane and carbon dioxide, and its potential for fires and explosions and negative health impacts cannot be underestimated.
But there was no containment system to prevent the flooded landfill leachate from flowing out of the dump site, contaminating soil and groundwater.
The Green Sanitary District (GSD)—now the Green Area Water and Sanitary Authority—has its own water processing plant outside the Roseburg city limits. Water sanitation systems like the one used by GSD, use anaerobic bacteria, a living microbe, to clean impurities out of the water.
California Chris Boice served as liaison to the dump and its operations. By allowing Bruce Hanna to dump tons of gypsum into the landfill, Boice demonstrated an apparent willful indifference to the financial damage that resulted from his decision.
The leachate from the Douglas County dump was extracted sent to the GSD water treatment plant for routine purification in April 2919. But the GSD staff were shocked to discover that the leachate was so “hot” (high in nitrates), it literally killed all of the anaerobic bacteria in their processing system.
GSD had to shut down for more than a week, and was also forced to replace the anaerobic bacteria necessary for operations. After this, the GSD board refused to process any more of the toxic leachate from the county dump.
Back in 2010, GSD was processing about 100,000 gallons of Douglas County landfill leachate each year.
By 2019, the volume had increased 100-fold to 10 million gallons a year. The rise of leachate volume and toxicity in the Douglas County landfill was not merely a coincidence. It was a chemical inevitability—like a sixth grade science experiment of epic proportions gone terribly wrong, precipitated by dozens of tons of gypsum being dumped in the landfill.
Apparently, Chris Boice didn’t research the possible consequences of his campaign donor kickback. If he had simply Googled “landfill” and “gypsum,” he would have quickly learned that the gypsum, through chemical reaction, would yield 25% of it’s weight in hydrogen sulfide when added to a landfill.
And so, Boice’s free dump services for Bruce Hanna turned into millions of dollars needlessly paid by the taxes of Douglas County workers
Boice ignored the rules clearly posted on the sign posted at every county dump site—rules which he, as a county commissioner, had personally approved. It was as if Boice and Hanna believed the rules didn’t apply to them.
The hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic leachate that GSD refused to process contained compelling evidence of Boice’s apparent complicity in the chemical transformation of the county landfill, that now produced leachate so acidic, it couldn’t be processed or mitigated.
Desperate to find some way to get rid of this massive volume of toxic effluent, Boice showed up unannounced at the Winston City Council and GSD’s May 30 2019 joint special meeting, which was attended by more than a dozen board members and representatives of Winston and Green.
Boice brought Douglas County Public Works Director Scott Adam with him for back-up. Neither Boice nor Adams were invited to the meeting. The GSD board and local city officials intended to meet privately to decide whether to refuse delivery of any more of the toxic leachate from the Douglas County landfill. But somebody tipped off Boice.
Though nobody said the quiet part out loud, everybody in the room was pretty sure Boice’s free dump fees kickback to Bruce Hanna had backfired monumentally, causing a unprecedented increase in Douglas County landfill leachate volume and toxicity. Now the leachate was so acidic, it could not be processed at any water treatment facility and would have to be stored as hazardous waste.
Winston City Council member David Cunningham asked Boice rhetorically, “Is leachate considered a hazardous material by federal law?”
“It can be,”Scott Adams, the County Public Works Director answered evasively, “depending on the testing requirements. It can come in different concentrations and forms.”
“From the landfill is it [a hazardous material]?” asked GSD board member Tom Fullbright.
“It can be,” Adams replied, deliberately vague. He knew if he said “yes,” Boice might have him fired.
“It’s tested on a regular basis,” said Boice, painfully aware that the tons of gypsum sheet rock added to the landfill, like something out a Marvel superhero comic book, had apparently altered the leachate into a substance so toxic, it would be a financial liability for county taxpayers for years to come.
Boice told the meeting attendees that all of those landfill leachate test results were “very uniform.” But the incredulous board members appeared doubtful.
According to their contract, the Douglas County landfill leachate had been tested weekly by Umpqua Research, a reputable firm in Myrtle Creek, south of Roseburg. But curiously this testing schedule was later altered from weekly to monthly by a verbal agreement that bypassed supervisory or administrative staff.
Winston City Administrator Mark Bauer stated that this was the first time the leachate sample came back “hot” (dangerously acidic) in eight or nine years of testing.
“Prior to this,” Bauer explained, “we got a lot of test results. But as the leachate comes to the testing facility, on any given day you don’t know what you’re gonna get. That’s why we [repeatedly tested it] for a long time—”
“That’s not true entirely—” Douglas County Public Works Director Scott Adams answered dismissively.
“The fact of the matter,” said Boice authoritatively, “is that we don’t ‘punch around’ and ‘dig around’ in the landfill and get leachate from different parts of the landfill. The only reason this particular situation happened is because there’s new wells being dug out there for the methane gas. Otherwise, the collection system is very uniform and has this—the results of the historical testing shows the potency of the leachate coming out of the system is very uniform it hasn’t changed much…”
Boice blamed the sudden change in the leachate on the methane wells in the landfill.
Without mentioning Bruce Hanna dumping tons of gypsum into the landfill, Winston City Administrator Mark Bauer told Boice:
“What I’m talking about, commissioner, is when we first talked with Tom Afton about it, and he was in this room, he told this group … the constituents [chemicals] that were coming out of that [leachate] were in a lot lower concentration than what we ended up finally seeing when they were coming to our plant. So, right off the bat we ended up with some operational things that we didn’t think we were going to have to manage—like they were going to bring it to Green and drop it in a manhole… Now it comes to the plant; we have to meter it in, and there’s a lot of things that have changed as a result of the constituents [chemicals] in that leachate. And I understand the leachate process very well… we’ve had an issue with this being higher concentrations [of chemicals] than it was originally planned for… Then we got this really hot slug that’s been nothing like anything we’ve seen before…”
Shocked by Boice’s apparent gaslighting, GSD board member Tom Fullbright called Boice’s bluff, “Have you guys got a copy of what has been tested over time? You said that it’s all been consistent. Do you have anything to verify that from the testing facility? In regards to … what we’re saying … you guys got a copy of what is being tested over the period of time.?”
“Well, we have a lot of that material down at the plant,” replied Douglas County Public Works Director Scott Adams.
Boice replied punitively, as if he had been slighted while making himself the victim, “No. We didn’t bring it with us tonight. And the reason for that is—we weren’t invited to this meeting. I’m not sure who called me, or what the purpose of the meeting was specifically, but Douglas County was not invited to attend. We weren’t asked to be here, and we weren’t asked to bring any information with us. It actually surprises me that you guys have as many questions as you do for us, since weren’t even supposed to be here.”
The people at the meeting were familiar with Boice’s proclivity for bullying and were exasperated by his lack of transparency.
“It’s a public meeting,” one of the board members explained.
Boice pressured the GSD board to accept as normal, the sudden spike in acidity in the landfill leachate, and that this spike was caused by methane mines—thereby taking the focus off his own questionable decision to let Bruce Hanna permanently contaminate the county’s only landfill with tons of gypsum. But nobody was buying it.
The meeting attendees understood that the guy responsible for making the leachate so “hot” was sitting right in front of them—County Commissioner Chris Boice.
Boice was desperate to get GSD to agree to process the toxic leachate from the county landfill. But the people at the meeting remained skeptical. “What are you doing with the leachate right now?” GSD board member Tom Fullbright asked.
“Currently,” said Scott Adams, “we’re hauling the leachate up to PPV in Portland. We were hauling it to Finley Butte in eastern Oregon—that was the only place that would accept it.”
Adams explained that, prior to leachate processing, years ago, they used to simply treat it and dispose of it in the South Umpqua River. (The PPV landfill in Portland has since closed.)
The Douglas County landfill leachate, like nuclear waste, was prohibited from being deposited in most state landfills. It could only be accepted at a landfill facility capable of containing hazardous waste, 350 miles away to the Finley Butte landfill in Boardman, in the Columbia Gorge. It cost the county $50,000 for each tanker truck load of toxic leachate transported to Boardman.
But Chris Boice, the Douglas County Commissioner who served as liaison to the landfill, wanted to save money, so they began having them dilute the toxic landfill leachate—what locals were now calling “Boice’s Brew”—and truck it to the Hillsboro Landfill and Tualatin Valley Dry Waste Recovery plant in Hillsboro.
Since as many as ten tanker trucks a day deposit leachate into the manhole on Ingram road in Green, neighbors couldn’t help but wonder how many millions of Douglas County taxpayer dollars were being squandered trucking toxic leachate out of the county.
As Boice anxiously drummed his fingers on his knee, Winston City Administrator Mark Bauer admitted, “There’s also the worry of a third-party lawsuit.”
After Boice left the meeting, people expressed concerns that the county wasn’t paying them enough to process such highly toxic effluent.
One board member thought it wasn’t worth the trouble. But one of the men from the sanitation department assured them that dilution was still the solution to the pollution. But his words fell on skeptical ears.
Even the federal Environmental Protection Agency, a longtime advocate of the “dilution is the solution to pollution” myth, now readily admits it’s false—minuscule levels of poisons do cause harm, illness, or mortality. This is especially true for heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, and copper, all of which are found in the Douglas County landfill’s leachate.
The City of Winston and GSD were worried about potential lawsuits stemming from what was now being referred to as “Boice’s Brew.” To this end, they wanted a “hold harmless” clause added to their contracts if they were going to even consider processing the Douglass County landfill’s toxic leachate.
But when the contract was drafted and presented in January of 2020, GSD staff were surprised to discover that the county had diminished the fee they would pay GSD for processing from $0.045 per gallon to $0.020 per gallon—a more than 50% decrease for an exponentially more dangerous and toxic leachate than they’d ever seen before.
Facing the inevitable, in 2020, the three Douglas County Commissioners voted to earmark $1.2 million to pay for the closure of the old (and now contaminated) county landfill.
The county has since spent another $309,000 for additional land adjacent to the present county dump for the construction of a new landfill. But it is unknown if it will be lined to prevent the leaching of toxic effluents into soil and water. Building a new dump with a proper leach-proof liner can cost as much as a million dollars and acre.
In early 2024, a leachate processing facility was built at the Douglas County landfill. Chris Boice claimed that the new plant would be finished and functional by the Spring of 2024, but at the time of this writing it is still not fully operational. The News-Review newspaper reported that the leachate processing plant cost $1,650,000 in taxpayer dollars. Additionally, the leachate disposal line and manhole cost taxpayers another $750,000. Some believe it cost the public a lot more than the newspaper reported.
Boice’s goal is to process the leachate as minimally as possible—just enough to get away with pouring it into the South Umpqua River. However, they’re still trying to find a de-foaming agent to process the leachate, which would visually “hide” its presence when dumped into a public waterway.
It begs the question: why did Douglas County spend nearly $2 million of county taxpayer dollars to build a dump brewery processing facility?
California Chris Boice’s dump fee waiver kickback to Bruce Hanna has turned into a multi-million-dollar blunder. For four long months, the toxic leachate had to be trucked out of the county at great expense to county taxpayers.
During heavy rains, the Green Area District experiences multiple sewer system failures. This is exacerbated by the filling in of former timber holding ponds, the paving over of ditches, and the development of storage facilities. Without responsible leadership and management, this problem is only going to get worse for homeowners in Green.
At 2:45 a.m. on Sunday, December 29, 2024, heavy rains flooded the Douglas County landfill and raw sewage poured out of a manhole located near River Place Drive and Carnes Road in the Green District, south of Roseburg.
15,000 to 17,000 gallons of raw wastewater discharged into nearby Roberts Creek, requiring full cleanup and sanitation of the affected area, paid for by county taxpayers. According to Green Area Water and Sanitary Authority General Manager David Campos, the over 1,800 gallons-a-minute was more than their pump station could handle.
Coworkers use words like “thug” and “bully” to described Boice. One said he was “not well spoken.”
It’s worth remembering that the job of county commissioner is a financial planning and business management position. Voters expect commissioners to manage their tax dollars wisely and responsibly.
Some say that Boice isn’t much of a businessman. No grade point average, intelligence test, examine, or degree is required to become a county commissioner. But the department heads who work for the county must have college degrees.
One wonders if Boice even consulted county department heads about his intention to allow Bruce Hanna to put tons of gypsum into the county’s only dump site? If they warned him of the potential chemical consequences, he apparently refused to heed their warnings.
Boice filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2000.
In 2011, he refinanced his Roseburg residence, taking more than $100,000 in equity out of the property before ultimately foreclosing. While bankruptcies of this kind usually take a year, miraculously, Boice’s bankruptcy was inexplicably completed in only less than four months.
Yet despite the bankruptcy and the foreclosure, Boice conspicuously spent a collective $2 million purchasing four different real estate parcels totaling nearly 95 acres, and all on the same day, July 30, 2019:
Parcel R42564, 13.78 acres at a cost of $750,000.
Parcel R109595, 38.57 acres at a cost of $250,000.
Parcel R68746, 41.34 acres at a cost of $250,000.
Parcel R42548, 0.7 acres at a cost of $750,000.
Boice also bought a new $100,000 silver Porche Cayenne and a $600,000 airplane, posting photos of his pricey acquisitions on his Facebook page on May 26, 2023.
But Boice’s position of Douglas County commissioner only pays $150,000 a year. So, where did he suddenly get millions of dollars?
That is to say, how can he afford airplane hangar rental and aircraft maintenance fees? How did he pay for his Dodge Ram 350 and a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited—both with “Boice” vanity license plates?
Some allege that Boice inappropriately diverted public funds in a quid pro quo deal that allowed him to launder taxpayer dollars before putting them in his pocket.
Other believe Bruce Hanna, or one of Boice’s other wealthy campaign donors, funneled money to Boice through one of their many nonprofit organizations, as a prepayment for favors yet uncollected.
If you ask Chris Boice about the gypsum in the landfill, he will likely gaslight you, telling you to stop believing “urban legends” and “conspiracy theories.” It’s his usual tactic to avoid accountability—he plays the victim when he’s actually the perpetrator.
In the end, the hard working taxpayers of Douglas County have been robbed. They are left paying the multi-million bill for Bruce Hanna and Chris Boice’s reckless disregard for fiscal responsibility and public safety.
Meanwhile, “California Chris” drives off into the sunset in his silver Porsche Cayenne, which was apparently purchased on the backs of a defrauded county taxpayers.
