Find out about issues important in Oregon
Find out what is going on in your part of the state
|
|
Environmental Update: Find out about issues important in Oregon |
Find your group: Find out what is going on in your part of the state |
Search the Oregon Chapter web site: | ||||
|
|
|||||||
 |
Chapter Home >> Conservation Issues >> Water Quality Water Quality We Need Your Help to Keep Toxic Discharges Out of Oregon's Rivers! Please help close the loophole that is letting polluters dump over 30 billion gallons a year of toxic pollution into the Willamette River. By Scott Jerger, Water Issues Coordinator The Oregon Chapter in collaboration with a number of other local conservation groups is working to end a practice that most people think had been stopped long ago: the dumping of toxic waste at toxic concentrations into the Willamette River. Most people believe that Oregon requires industries that discharge their wastewater into the Willamette River to treat their waste so that it does not exceed state and federal toxicity standards. Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), however, regularly allows industries and municipalities to dump toxic waste at toxic concentrations into all of Oregon's rivers and streams by designating a portion of these waters as "toxic mixing zones." In these designated sections of rivers a given polluter is allowed to discharge waste at concentration that DEQ plainly admits exceed maximum toxicity standards developed to protect fish, wildlife and humans. The toxic mixing zones can exceed over 100,000 square feet in size, such as the one DEQ recently approved for Georgia Pacific's Wauna paper plant on the Columbia River and DEQ have never even tallied how many mixing zones it has allowed or ever prepared a cumulative effects analysis of how these zones are impacting water quality. Shockingly, DEQ continues to allow toxic mixing zones even within the sections of the Willamette River that are so polluted they have already been designated as a superfund site. Last summer, for example, DEQ approved a large mixing zone for Wacker Siltronic whose facility discharges right into the Portland superfund site. While toxic mixing zones are a loophole used in many states to avoid the requirements of the Clean Water Act, the Sierra Club, in conjunction with Willamette Riverkeeper, Columbia Riverkeeper, OSPIRG and NEDC, are working to pass a bill in the Oregon Legislature that would phase out toxic mixing zones over the next five years. This bill is a great opportunity for us to close a loophole that has been allowing polluters to dump toxic waste in our waters for decades. It will really separate the legislators who want to hold industry accountable for treating their waste before they dump it in the river and those who give industry a free ride at the expense of Oregon's waters." The bill is certain to be vigorously opposed by the state's major polluters and that's why we need YOUR help in letting your elected representatives know about this bill and know why they should support it! Our effort to end the controversial practice of dumping toxic waste at toxic concentrations into Oregon's rivers and streams got a major boost recently when Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney agreed to introduce our bill into the Oregon Senate. Additionally, the Oregon Conservation Network, which is a coalition of leading conservation groups in Oregon involved with the coming legislative session, has endorsed the toxic mixing zone phase out bill as one of its top five priorities for the coming year. It's just common sense that if you don't want Oregon's rivers to be toxic, you can't dump toxic waste in them. It seems so basic but the status quo in Oregon hasn't caught up with that reality yet. If you are interested in getting involved in helping with this precedent-setting legislation, contact Scott Jerger at scott.jerger@oregon.sierraclub.org or (503) 542-2015. For more information, you can download and print our toxic mixing zones flyer. |
© by Kathryn DelGatto |
|
This page last updated Thursday, April 20, 2006
|