Earlier this year, Georgia Baxter-Krause of wood products company J.H. Baxter pleaded guilty to violating environmental laws, then lying about it to federal regulators. An attorney with a class-action lawsuit says having Baxter-Krause pay fines and serve time helps his case, but restitution for victims still seems far from certain. Meanwhile, Baxter-Krause has successfully petitioned the court to delay her incarceration date by more than three months.
J.H. Baxter’s wood treatment plant operated in Eugene’s Bethel area for nearly 80 years before shutting down in 2022. Investigators have since determined the illegal use of devices called retorts to boil off and release toxic wastewater into the air was done multiple times.
“On 175 days from approximately December 2015 through October 2019, Respondent [J.H. Baxter] pumped approximately 1.7 million gallons of liquid process waste containing the chemical mixtures described above to retorts 81, 82, 83, and 85 at the Facility, bypassed the pollution controls on the retorts, and operated the retorts to heat and 'boil off,' or evaporate, the waste,” an official statement issued in 2024 from the U.S. Dept. of Justice read.
In April, a federal judge in Eugene fined Baxter-Krause and her company $1.5 million and sentenced her to 90 days in prison. Many locals who were present at the hearing were upset, and several told reporters that they felt the penalties should have been harsher.
“This is a tragedy for the community, ” said Chris Nidel, an attorney in one of two class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of local residents who say their health and livelihoods were affected by the plant’s operations. He told KLCC that Baxter-Krause’s guilty plea and sentence should help his case, which is still awaiting a trial date.
“I mean, you have a company that operated for I think, 80, 90 years, having a massive impact on not just the use and enjoyment of property, but on health and well-being," said Nidel. "And their ability to cause damage in the community was much greater than its ability to pay for that damage.”
Georgia Baxter-Krause was scheduled to surrender herself to a federal prison near Seattle on June 17, but court records show that she’s been allowed to delay her incarceration until Oct. 1. Baxter-Krause said she needed to care for her husband after his surgery, and to continue managing issues related to the shuttered wood-treatment plant in Eugene.
Copyright 2025, KLCC.
