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Pollution

A Journey Into Portland’s Toxic Zone

August 13, 2010
By Dennis Newman
River Trip 1

Cruising the Willamette River on a perfectly sunny summer afternoon, it was tempting to forget that we were in the middle of a Superfund site. But as one of our tour guides reminded me, “It’s what you can’t see that will hurt you.”
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Posted in Pesticides, Pollution, Toxic Chemicals | 3 Comments »

Game Changer: DEQ Takes A Fresh Look At Shutting Down Boardman

June 28, 2010
By Dennis Newman
PGE's coal fired Boardman Power Plant. Photo from Ted Timmons

The news must have landed at PGE like a ton of coal. Oregon DEQ says its looking at three options for an early closure of PGE’s coal-fired power plant at Boardman. They call on the utility to spend millions more to keep the plant running, or shutting it down a lot earlier than PGE...
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Posted in Energy, Pollution, Utilities | 1 Comment »

Boardman Showdown In Portland

June 23, 2010
By Dennis Newman
Boardman Showdown In Portland

Hearings before the Public Utility Commission are usually pretty dull events. But Wednesday’s hearing in Portland promises to be very, very different. That’s because environmental groups are rallying the troops, urging them to show up in huge numbers. Their message to the PUC? Shut down the Boardman coal-fired power plant by 2014.
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Posted in Energy, Pollution | 1 Comment »

DEQ: How To Clean Up Some Of Oregon’s Nastiest Pollution

June 2, 2010
By Dennis Newman

After two years of study and hearings, Oregon’s DEQ has a plan to make our streams, rivers and lakes safer for people and wildlife.
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Posted in Pollution | 1 Comment »

A Report From The DEQ Air Toxics Meeting

May 19, 2010
By Dennis Newman
A Report From The DEQ Air Toxics Meeting

You’d think that tougher standards for toxic pollution in the air we breathe would be an easy sell, especially here in Portland. But Mary Peveto of Neighbors for Clean Air tells me there’s a lot of frustration after what people heard at last night’s meeting put on by Oregon DEQ.
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Posted in Pollution | No Comments »

Photos From Friday’s Offshore Drilling Protest In Portland

May 15, 2010
By Dennis Newman

I was out of town when I got a phone call from Brock Howell of Environment Oregon who was in the middle of this protest at the time.  Too bad I wasn’t able to record the audio. I could hear lots of cars in the background – honking in solidarity with the protesters. It...
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Posted in Energy, Pollution | 2 Comments »

A NW Portlander’s Fight For Clean Air

May 10, 2010
By Dennis Newman

Mary Peveto remembers the moment she became a clean air activist. The NW Portland resident had just typed the name of her daughter’s school into a national database on toxic air quality. Much to her surprise – and horror – the school was ranked as one of the worst in the country.
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Clean Up Or Shut Down: New Pressure On The Boardman Coal Plant

May 4, 2010
By Dennis Newman
Clean Up Or Shut Down: New Pressure On The Boardman Coal Plant

Environmental groups hope they’ve found another way to force an early closure of Oregon’s only coal fired power plant, the PGE facility near Boardman. The idea is to make PGE to spend so much money on pollution controls, the utility will decide that shutting down Boardman will be cheaper than cleaning it up.
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Posted in Coal, Pollution, Utilities | No Comments »

Bad Air Could Stall Klamath Biomass Plans

April 29, 2010
By Dennis Newman

Yesterday we told you that Klamath County got a failing grade in a national report on air quality. Turns out there may be more at stake than just a little bit of public embarrassment. The Klamath Falls Herald and News reports that the failing grade could complicate plans to build a $70 million biomass...
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Posted in Pollution, Renewable Energy | No Comments »

Three Oregon Counties Flunk Clean Air Report

April 28, 2010
By Dennis Newman

The American Lung Association releases its annual clean air report and it’s not kind to three counties in Oregon. Lane, Jackson and Klamath counties get at least one flunking grade. Eugene-Springfield earns a spot on one of the group’s “Most Polluted Cities” lists.
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