Pollution

An interesting story is playing out in Northwest Portland, where Oregon DEQ has seriously backpedaled on a statement it made about air toxins from the ESCO foundry. According to the NW Examiner, DEQ told residents almost a year ago that air pollution from the foundry was “only a sliver of the area’s air pollution.” But...
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After decades of leaching mercury into the streams and rivers of Lane County, the EPA has put the former Black Butte Mine on the Superfund clean up list. The mine is located about ten miles south of Cottage Grove. EPA has documents thousands of cubic yards of tailings and soil that’s been contaminated by mercury...
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Oregon’s Senator Merkley and Rep. Blumenauer are introducing legislation to reduce pollution in the Columbia River. At a cost of about $40 million a year, the bill creates a team at the EPA office in Portland that will work with states, tribes, local governments and other federal agencies across the Columbia River Basin. It gets a...
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Once again, Chris Lehman of OPB and the Northwest News Network is on top of this one. Lehman reports on his Capitol Currents blog that the latest revival of a BPA ban died today in House Rules Committee. He says the committee chair didn’t bother bringing up HB 3703 for a vote today, so the...
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That mysterious HB 3703 comes up before the House Rules Committee again this afternoon. This is the latest version of the bisphenol A ban, the one the Senate voted down earlier this week. But rather than accepting defeat, supporters found a new home for it before the Rules Committee. It’s been sitting on the agenda...
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A reborn version of the bisphenol A ban comes up this afternoon in the House Rules committee. HB 3703 bans the use of BPA lined bottles and cans if the food or drinks they contain are meant for children under the age of three. It’s a slightly different version of the BPA ban that...
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OPB’s capitol correspondent is on to something. In his Capitol Currents blog, Chris Lehman notes a ban on bisphenol A (BPA) may have found a new life in the House Rules Committee. The Rules Committee has scheduled a hearing Wednesday afternoon on HB 3703, which among other things, contains language banning BPA. The BPA issue appeared...
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Three Democrats and all the Republican members of the Oregon Senate combined forces today to block a bill designed to protect young children from exposure to bisphenol A (BPA). The vote on SB 1032 was 15-15. The bill was one of the top goals of the special session for the environmental movement in Oregon. We are waiting...
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The Senate is expected to vote today on SB 1032, the BPA ban. The bill prohibits the manufacture and sale of baby plastic bottles and cups that contain bisphenol A. But just before the Senate opens for business, OPB’s Think Out Loud program features a discussion about BPA, the new concerns about its health impacts...
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Washington Ecology has identified the source of a mile long petroleum coke spill that formed along the Columbia River earlier this month. Ecology says it started at Chinook Ventures near Longview, Washington. This is a company that the department says has a history of air and water quality violations.
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