Posts Tagged ‘ oregon department of environmental quality ’

BREAKING: DEQ Issues Air Quality Alert For Willamette Valley

December 10, 2009
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Oregon DEQ warns of worsening air quality in the Willamette Valley for the next few days. The alert covers Salem and the Portland metro area. The agency has already issued a red alert for “unhealthy” air quality in Hillsboro and those conditions are expected to last until the weekend. As for the rest of the Valley, DEQ say air pollution could reach levels that affect people with respiratory problems, such as asthma, and people with heart conditions.

It’s asking homeowners with wood stoves and fireplaces to stop using them until conditions improve.

What’s happening?

Read more »

Bandon Seafood Company Slapped With Huge Pollution Fine

December 10, 2009
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A seafood processor in Bandon has been ordered to pay at fine of more than $208,000 for what state officials call “numerous” violations of the company’s water quality permit.

Oregon DEQ says Bandon Pacific committed more than 4,000 violations from 2004 – 2009, including:

  • Failing to monitor wastewater and not reporting the results. (2,800 occasions)
  • Dumping fish carcasses into the Coquille River. (915 occasions)
  • Not using a mesh screen to filter the wastewater before discharging it into the Coquille. (915 occasions)

DEQ says this the 11th largest fine in its history and says the violations are serious one. The agency says it found violations going back as far as 2001, but decided to limit the penalty period to just the previous five years.

Bandon Pacific is a seafood processor that also sells to the public. It’s owned by the same company that operates Pacific Seafoods.

DEQ says the company plans to appeal the fine.

Measures 66 & 67: What They Mean For Oregon’s Environment

December 2, 2009
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State parks face cuts of up to $8.65 million. Photo from Oregon Parks and Recreation

State parks face cuts of up to $8.65 million. Photo from Oregon Parks and Recreation

If Measures 66 and 67 fail in next month’s special election, it could mean major reductions in how much money the state spends on monitoring pollution, protecting and restoring streams, maintaining state parks, and fighting wildfires.

These two measures raise about $733 million for state government by increasing incomes taxes on high earning Oregonians, and raising minimum taxes paid by corporations. Business groups have been fighting hard against the measures. About a month ago, Oregonian’s environmental community stepped into the fight. The Oregon League of Conservation Voters endorsed Measures 66 and 67 and warned that if they’re defeated the state’s natural resources would take a serious hit.

Now we have some actual numbers to examine that claim.

It comes from state agencies. This week, they released new data showing how they might handle budget cuts of 5% and 10%.

A few “let the reader beware” warnings.

I’m using the 10% cut numbers because in the past, agencies that handle natural resources tend to be cut deeper than other parts of state government. If the pain was shared equally, all agencies would be cutting about 5%. My experience tells me that lawmakers are likely to protect spending on education, law enforcement and human services at the expense of wildlife, parks, pollution and water quality.

Remember these are suggested cuts only. If Measures 66 and 67 are voted down, agencies’ priorities might change when faced with making actual cuts instead of hypothetical ones.

The numbers are spread out over two years. These potential cuts cover spending for 2010 and 2011.

Finally, I’m no budget expert. But I’ve done my best to look at the material online and tried to figure it all out. If I’ve made a mistake, please don’t hesitate to correct me.

-See the Legislative Fiscal Office webpage and follow the Budget Reduction Options link to do your own calculations.

With that in mind, here we go!

Parks and Recreation: Faces cuts of about $8.65 million, much of it coming from putting off maintenance at state parks. The agency warns that park facilities will look shabbier and more rundown. The department is also trying to take a lot of money out of office operations.

Forestry Department: Could lose the equivalent of 47 full-time jobs within the department and see its budget cut by about $7.8 million. Most of the money would come from fighting wildfires, including the initial attack units that have been given lots of credit for putting out wildfires before they get out of control. Dozens more temporary wildfire fighting positions would also be cut.

Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board: Probably the most important agency the public doesn’t know about. Every year OWEB funds hundreds of projects including dam removal, improving fish habitat and restoring streams and rivers. A 10% cut would mean OWEB would have about $6 million less to spend on these projects during 2010 and 2011.

Environmental Quality: DEQ would lose about $3.3 million under this scenario and the equivalent of about 15 full-time jobs. The department says efforts to monitor air and water quality would probably suffer the most. One possible casualty, an air monitoring station in either Salem or Medford.

Fish and Wildlife: This agency would have to trim about 1.9 million, with a lot of the cuts coming from the monitoring of steelhead and salmon, fish screening projects and hatchery maintenance.

Agriculture: Could lose about $979,000 with a lot of the money coming from cuts in programs to control noxious weeds, invasive species and soil and water conservation.

Oregon’s Dirty Dozens

October 21, 2009
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Oregon DEQ has just finished the first big step towards regulating 118 toxic, or potentially toxic, chemicals.

DEQ calls them “persistent pollutants”.  They’re persistent because they take a long time to break down in the environment.  Instead, the levels of these chemicals accumulate in water, soil and wildlife.  They work their way up the food chain and can eventually harm people, too.

Some of the pollutants will have familiar names, such as mercury, PCBs and DDT.  Others are not so familiar, but they’re found in products such as weed killers, prescription drugs and even personal care products.  Many of these pollutants have entered the environment through our sewers.

Over the past several months DEQ has studied which of these chemicals deserve the most attention.  Its final list of Priority Persistent Chemicals, AKA the P3 list, was released this week.   But there’s much more work to be done.

Here are a few items from the DEQ list.

  • Halogenated flame retardants:  This includes PBDEs, a class of chemicals used in a variety of consumer products such as carpeting, furniture, mattresses, computers, and televisions.  Oregon and Washington have banned the most common types of PBDEs, but their levels continue to rise in the Pacific Northwest.
  • Pesticides and herbicides: DEQ says some of these are suspected of disrupting the production of hormones in wildlife and humans.
  • Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care products: This list includes some synthetic hormones, an anti-psychotic medication, food additives and disinfectants.  Also suspected of disruption the hormone system.

What’s Next?

Over the coming months, DEQ staff will start looking at the sources of these pollutants and try to figure out how to reduce their presence in Oregon waters.  It will also determine how much of these pollutants will be allowed in wastewater.  If levels rise above a certain “trigger point”, then the operators of Oregon’s 52 largest sewage systems will have to take steps to reduce them.  All these steps should be completed by July of 2011.

The work to fix this problem began when the 2007 Legislature approved Senate Bill 737.

For more information see DEQ’s website on SB 737.

Lehman Hot Springs Back In Hot Water

October 19, 2009
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A well known Eastern Oregon hot springs resort faces new legal trouble over its sewage system.

According to Oregon DEQ, Lehman Hot Springs near Ukiah has been ordered to stop using it sewage lagoons.  DEQ says Umatilla County Circuit Court Judge Garry Reynolds issued a preliminary injunction on Friday.  He also ordered the resort to empty the primary lagoon and stop discharging sewage into Warm Springs Creek.

DEQ says when it inspected the lagoon system earlier this year, it found that more than 20,000 gallons of wastewater were spilling into the creek, a tributary of the John Day River.  The agency says the lagoons are in disrepair.  And if they were to fail, it says more than 2 million gallons of sewage wastewater into the John Day River system.

Extreme Environmental Makeover Proposed For PGE Power Plant

June 1, 2009
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One of the biggest sources of air pollution in the state, the PGE coal-fired power plant near Boardman, may soon undergo a very costly environmental makeover.  Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality wants PGE to install more than $470 million worth of pollution controls by 2018.

The goal?  Cut emissions of nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide by 80%.

The benefits?  Major reductions in haze and acid rain in the Columbia River Gorge, and major reductions in haze at a dozen wilderness areas around the state.

DEQ staff will submit the rules to Commissioners at their next meeting on June 18-19.  The Boardman clean up is the centerpiece of a proposed Oregon Regional Haze plan that’s designed to improve visibility across the state.  Commissioners could vote to adopt the plan, or ask staff to work on other options.

They’ll have to do something.  The Environmental Protection Agency is requiring states to reduce haze at what are called Class 1 Wilderness areas.  There are a dozen of them in scattered throughout Oregon, so reducing haze at these places will also clear the air in the rest of the state.  Some of the better known Class 1 Wilderness areas are located near Mt. Hood, the Three Sisters, Crater Lake and Hells Canyon.

PGE asked for so-called “decision points” which would allow them to stop spending money on fixing up the plant, if they agreed to decommission it at some later point.  DEQ staff turned down that proposal, but says if PGE decides to shut down Boardman it can always file for a rule change.

While $470 million sounds costly, DEQ estimates it will only increase electricity bills for PGE customers by 3.5%, or about $3 a month for the average household.  If the rules are approved, the first phase of pollution controls would have to be installed starting in 2011.