The report lists 24-trends that, according to the EPA, show Climate Change is a “real problem” that’s already impacting our country.

Some highlights:

Greenhouse Gases: Greenhouse gas pollution caused by people rose 14% in the United States from 1990 to 2008. Most of that appears to be due to population growth. The report says the amount of emissions, per person, have remained about the same. Globally, emissions rose 26% from 1990 – 2005.

Average Temperatures: Seven of the top ten warmest years in the U.S. have occurred since 1990. For the world, 2000-2009 was the warmest decade ever recorded.

Heat Waves: Since 1980, we’re seeing more heat waves in the lower 48-states and more parts of the country are experiencing them. Still, things aren’t as bad as they were during the 1930s dust bowl.

Hurricanes: Six of the 10 most active hurricane seasons have occurred since the mid-1990s.

Sea Levels: Global sea levels are rising about an inch per decade. Here in the U.S. we’re seeing the most problems in the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. In the Northwest, sea levels have actually gone down a little. The impact isn’t consistent because, the report says, because in some places the land is rising faster than the ocean.

Glaciers and Ice: Glaciers in the United States and around the world have generally shrunk since the 1960s, and the rate at which glaciers are melting appears to have accelerated over the last decade. Lakes in the Northern U.S. are freezing later and melting sooner than they were 100-years ago.

Oregon gets some special attention in the report. Western Oregon, Western Washington and Northern California are experiencing some of the biggest decreases in winter snowpack. This could cause serious problems for how we manage salmon and steelhead, while trying to set aside water for hydropower and irrigation.

For More Information:

EPA: Climate Change Indicators in the United States

Related Stories:

• They’re Not Forests, Think Of Them As Lungs For The Earth
• Oregon Shines In Greenhouse Gas Report
• Portland, Multnomah County Charge Ahead On Climate Change

But Tuesday’s announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency opens a whole new front. The agency says it will study BPA’s impact on the environment.

BPA is used in many consumer and industrial products. People are most likely to come into contact with it by drinking liquids or eating food from containers that are lined with BPA. That type of BPA is regulated, at the federal level, by the Food and Drug Administration. In January, the FDA said new testing raised questions that even low levels of exposure might effect the brain, behavior, and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children.

Now the EPA tells us there’s a lot more BPA out there. Only 5% of BPA is used in food and drink packaging. Most of it is used in the manufacture of plastics and resins. EPA says more than a million pounds are released into the environment every year.

The agency says it will take the following steps to study bisphenol-A’s environmental impacts.

• Adding BPA to the chemical concern list on the basis of potential environmental effects.
• Requiring information on concentrations of BPA in surface water, ground water, and drinking water to determine if the chemical may be present at levels of potential concern.
• Requiring manufacturers to provide test data to assist the agency in evaluating its possible impacts, including long-term effects on growth, reproduction, and development in aquatic organisms and wildlife.
• Using EPA’s Design for the Environment program to look for ways to reduce unnecessary exposures, including assessing substitutes, while additional studies continue.
• And, continuing to evaluate the potential disproportionate impact on children and other sub-populations through exposure from non-food packaging uses.

BPA was a hot issue in the special session of the Oregon Legislature. The state’s environmental community wanted lawmakers to approve a ban on many types of BPA lined containers. But the bill died after a tied vote in the Senate.

Related Information:

• EPA: Bisphenol A (BPA) Action Plan Summary
• Natural Oregon: Bill Will Protect Oregon Children From Exposure To BPA
• Oregon Environmental Council: Working for an end to BPA exposure

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 and arsenic. Some of it has been carried by streams and rivers into the Cottage Grove reservoir where things have gotten so bad that health officials say it’s a good idea not to each the fish there.

The Black Butte Mine was in operation for almost 80-years, starting in the 1890′s until it closed around 1970. An article in the Eugene Register-Guard says that during peak times, it could produce 100 tons of ore daily.

After the mine closed, it was sold to investors who wanted to log the land. It’s been a timber operation since about 1975.

The EPA got involved in 2007 after state officials asked the agency to do some clean up work at the site. EPA found a 300,000 cubic yard pile of tailings, more tailings spread through Furnace Creek, and high concentrations of mercury and arsenic in stream beds downstream from the site.

Oregon’s Health Department says women who could become pregnant, children under age 6, and people with kidney and liver problems shouldn’t eat fish from the Cottage Grove reservoir. Everyone else shouldn’t eat the fish more than twice a month.

Albemarle Corporation and Chemtura Corporation are the two largest U.S. manufacturers of decaBDE, ICL Industrial Products is our county’s largest importer. Under the deal, they will phase out most production, importation and sales of decaBDE by the end of 2012. By the end of 2013 they will stop all uses of it. The EPA is asking smaller companies to join them.

The chemical is used in a variety of consumer products, including electronics and textiles. But over the past year or so, we’ve seen more and more evidence that decaBDE poses a serious risk to the environment here in the Pacific Northwest.

It was almost a year ago that the Environmental Protection Agency issued a report describing BDEs as one of four major pollutants that continues to threaten wildlife in the Columbia River Basin. Like DDT and PCBs, this group of flame retardants is slow to break down in the environment. In fact, levels of these chemicals are rising. Over time, they build up in the tissues of wildlife and are known to cause liver, thyroid and neurological problems in animals and interfere with their ability to reproduce.

Oregon and Washington have banned the use and manufacture of decaBDE. These laws take effect in January. The other two major types of BDEs are already banned in these two states.

The EPA wants to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Photo from ODOT.

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency declared greenhouse gases a threat to public health, and will start regulating them as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says the agency will move forward on plans to control greenhouse emissions from cars and trucks, and from large stationary sources such as factories.

The decision is receiving, so far, unanimous praise from Northwest environmental groups.

Environment Oregon calls this the, “Most significant step the federal government has taken on global warming.”

The Center For Biological Diversity, a national group with offices in Portland says, “We applaud the EPA for moving forward to implement one of our nation’s most successful environmental laws to avert catastrophic runaway global warming.”

Seattle based Earthjustice adds, “We are heartened to see that our government is recognizing the global warming threat.”

The decision is especially important because it means the Obama Administration can move forward to control greenhouse gases with, or without, Congress.

Here’s what they’re planning to do next:

Green Cars: The EPA will move forward on limiting emissions from cars and light trucks. By 2016, these vehicles will have to limit their emissions to 250 grams of CO2 per mile. That’s about how much a car getting 35 miles per gallon produces. EPA hopes to phase in the limits starting with the 2012 model year. This would reduce greenhouse gases from cars and trucks 21% by 2030.

Greenhouse Gas Reporting: Starting in 2011, large stationary sources of carbon, such as factories, will have to publicly report how much greenhouse gas they emit. The EPA says this should encourage business to start investing in clean air technologies.

Controlling New Emissions: Finally, the EPA will require large greenhouse gas producers to include the “best available technology” to control carbon whenever they expand facilities or build new ones.

All this has to be at least somewhat gratifying to local environmental groups in Oregon, who were blocked in their attempts to pass a cap-and-trade law in the last session of the state legislature. Nicole Forbes with Environment Oregon, says the U.S. Senate needs to continue work on climate legislation. But she says, “The stage is now set for EPA to hold the biggest global warming polluters accountable. It’s up to EPA to crack down on pollution from cars and mega industrial polluters, like coal-fired power plants.”

My conversation earlier this week with Environment Oregon’s Brock Howell now seems prophetic. Brock talked about how Obama is in a stronger position for Copenhagen because of the actions state governments are taking to reduce greenhouse gases. Even without a federal climate change law, Brock said state efforts will reduce carbon emissions by 536 million metric tons, per year, by 2020. This amount to 7% of U.S. global warming pollution in 2007.

Despite Oregon’s failure to adopt cap-and-trade, he says the state is showing leadership in several other areas. Hear what he has to say in this video.

Meanwhile, here is a replay of the EPA news conference. If you can’t see it on this page, go here

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See stories from:

Associated Press via Yahoo News
New York Times
Washington Post

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson holds a press conference at 10:15am, Portland time. Check back for live updates and hopefully streaming video.

Crater Lake, one of 500 lakes in the study. Photo by Dennis Newman

Here’s an argument for catch-and-release.

A new report by the Environmental Protection Agency is raising questions about the safety of fish caught in America’s lakes and reservoirs. The study looked at fish in 500 lakes across the country, including nine here in Oregon.

What the agency found is that it’s just about impossible to catch a fish that doesn’t have at least some mercury or PCBs. Dioxins and furans were also found in most fish.

But are they safe to eat?

That of course varies greatly depending on where you’re fishing and often how you eat what you catch.

Some more results from the study:

Mercury: The study found “potentially harmful” levels of mercury in fish at 49% of the lakes in the study. Mercury gets into the food chain from the burning of fossil fuels, usually coal.

PCBs: 17% of the lakes studied had fish with unhealthy levels of PCBs, a class of chemicals that can cause cancer.

Dioxins and furans: While at least 8 out of 10 fish in the study had at least some level of these chemicals, unhealthy amounts were found in fish at 8% of the lakes in the study.

Unfortunately, the EPA says its hard to draw conclusions about the safety of the fish caught here in Oregon. It says the sample sizes are too small to make any conclusions. But I’m trying to get data on what they found here.

Meanwhile, the Oregon Department of Human Services does have a list of lakes and rivers with fish advisories. You can find that list here.

That’s the message from the Environmental Protection Agency this afternoon, about air quality at two schools in Oregon. Earlier this year the EPA started monitoring air quality at 63 schools around the country, including Harriet Tubman Middle School in Portland and Toledo Elementary in Toledo.

The early results are “good news” according to Suzanne Skadowski of EPA’s Seattle office. The level of pollutants found near the schools are, in her words, “Way below the levels we’ve set for concern in the short-term”.

But the EPA also warns against drawing conclusions so early in the monitoring process. The real concern is the potential health problems for students, teachers and staff from long-term exposure. Skadowski says the agency will continue to sample air quality at both schools for about another month.  Updated results, showing long-term effects, are expected to be released by the end of the year.

The Harriet Tubman Middle School was chosen for the study because it represents a school close to heavy industry and a major interstate, I-5 in this case.  The major pollutants being studied are acetaldehyde, manganese and nickel.  Sources for these pollutants include vehicle exhaust and manufacturing.  Another source of acetaldehyde is coffee roasting.

Toledo Elementary was put on the list because it’s near a Georgia-Pacific mill.  The major pollutant being studied here is manganese.

For more information see:

EPA: Assessing Outdoor Air Near Schools

Harriet Tubman Middle School Short-Term Test Results

Toledo Elementary Short-Term Test Results

You can also see my earlier story on this topic, EPA To Study Air Quality At Two Oregon Schools.

The Environmental Protection Agency is placing new limits on the use of three organophosphate pesticides – chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion. The rules apply to Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California.

A Chinook salmon. Courtesy NOAA.

The EPA is trying to keep these chemical out of streams and rivers that are home to salmon and steelhead.  Research shows that these pesticides can interfere with a salmon’s ability to smell, making it harder for the fish to hunt prey.  The chemicals may also kill prey and reduce the salmon’s food supply.  In high enough concentrations, the pesticides can outright kill salmon.

How do the new rules work?  First, they require buffer zones around salmon and steelhead habitat.  These are areas where the pesticides can’t be used.  The size of the buffer zone will depend on weather conditions, and how the pesticides will be applied.  The idea is to keep the pesticides from drifting into fish waters.

Other restrictions including no spraying on windy and rainy days, or when rain is in the forecast, to prevent the chemicals from running off fields and into streams.

For the most part, these rules follow recommendations by NOAA Fisheries.  The EPA is asking manufacturers to voluntarily adopt these limits, with the threat of taking regulatory action if they don’t.

But what’s especially important about today’s announcement is that it may be the first in a very long series of new rulings on pesticide use.  The EPA and NOAA will spend the next couple of years studying three dozen pesticides in the Northwest.  So far, six of them have been labeled as threats to salmon and steelhead.  That includes the three pesticides mentioned above.

In July of 2005, Kolbeck and her husband Fred returned to their house after it had been sprayed for bugs by a pesticide company.  Thinking they had waited enough time after the spraying, the Kolbecks were coughing and on the floor within minutes.  A few hours later, Florence was dead from a heart attack.

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it has settled with the company that applied the pesticides.  Swanson’s Pest Management, Inc., of Eugene has agreed to pay a $4550 fine, the maximum possible under the law.  The EPA complaint says Swanson’s made three serious mistakes, including not doing a good enough job to ventilate the home after spraying.

Kolbeck’s death is the only known “death by pesticide” case in Oregon history.  An autopsy by Lane County concluded she died from a combination of factors, including exposure to the pesticide and poor health that made her vulnerable.  The report said the levels of pesticide found in the home were not lethal and that had Kolbeck been in better health she would have survived.

A lawsuit against Swanson’s, filed by her family, was settled out of court about a year ago.