The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality monitors air quality and issues advisories when wildfire smoke degrades air. Oregon is home to a number of … The Services completed their final Biological Opinions in 1999, three and a half years after DEQ had submitted the standards to EPA for action. Temperature is also a measure of many other stresses on salmon that are often not monitored: excess sedimentation from erosion, insufficient dissolved oxygen, inadequate instream flows, and loss of aquatic habitat. Portland manages stormwater as a valuable resource through green infrastructure, along with pipes, sumps and the wastewater treatment plant, to improve watershed health. The Pollution Prevention group: © Copyright 2020 City of Portland, Oregon, USA, Bureaus & Offices of the City of Portland, Pollution Prevention Services Work Groups, Investigates citizen complaints of spills and pollution in rivers and streams, Provides surfacewater and infrastructure water quality testing and analysis, Is responsible for compliance with federal and state permits for wastewater collection and treatment, stormwater management, and groundwater protection, Works with Portland industries to pretreat wastewater discharges before they enter the city’s sewer system and to manage stormwater onsite. In 2012, a federal court once again found largely in NWEA’s favor, ordering: (1) new Biological Opinions by the expert fish and wildlife agencies, (2) the removal of a “Natural Conditions Criterion” provision that allowed Oregon to. Despite Congressional action in 1987 to require states to update toxics standards every three years, Oregon failed to and, by 2002, NWEA had informed EPA that it would sue. Portland, OR 97204, 6543 N Burlington AvenuePortland, OR 97203503-823-5600. Located throughout north, east and southeast Portland, the projects installed 3,000 stormwater sumps and sedimentation manholes. The average car in the Portland and Medford regions travels 12,500 miles a year and releases about 10,727 pounds of emissions Pollution from a poorly maintained car is about 3 to 4 times that of a properly functioning car Most people in the Portland-Vancouver region drive to work alone. Once again, NWEA sued EPA, NMFS, and FWS over the EPA approval and the inadequate Endangered Species Act consultation.

Portland, OR 97204. Completed and submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval in 1996, these standards contained several numeric criteria and a substantial amount of narrative language. Northwest Environmental Advocates | P.O. Forgot your username or password? Portland also has a Water Pollution Control Facilities (WPCF) permit issued by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, which requires the city to protect groundwater quality in managing the city’s 9,000 sumps, or Underground Injection Controls (UICs).

Measuring the temperature of streams is key to understanding if water quality supports cold-water fish such as salmon, steelhead, and bull trout. The Environmental Protection Agency has a special designation for the country's most-polluted places: Superfund Sites.

Meanwhile, NMFS and FWS were refusing to complete their evaluations of the toxic criteria for the protection of fish and wildlife pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), thereby holding up EPA action. The City of Portland opened the 39-thousand square foot Water Pollution Control Laboratory in 1997, and the building is now a landmark in the St. Johns neighborhood. In some locations, the projects redirected stormwater out of the combined sewer and into new storm-only sewers. These standards are supposed to be the goals of all water pollution control actions. Create an Account », 1120 SW 5th Ave, Suite 613, Portland, OR 97204, 1120 SW 5th Ave, Suite 613 Knowing that EPA was likely to disapprove Oregon’s use of levels of fish consumption that would underestimate the risk of cancer and other diseases, Oregon then agreed to try again. NMFS concluded that various aspects of the standard would result in adverse effects to salmon but gave EPA the go-ahead for approval anyway. The swales, planters and water garden surrounding the building treat stormwater runoff from its roof and parking lot, and from 50 acres of nearby streets and neighborhoods. Portland plant guilty of water pollution, fined $500,000 Civic Affairs Bureau of Environmental Services says Oregon Oils, Inc. clogged sewer system with grease, fatty oils As a result of this decision, the Services issued new Biological Opinions and NWEA challenged EPA’s approval of Oregon temperature clean-up plans (“TMDLs”) in a separate suit filed in 2014. Pedestrians can stroll past the Lab, and artist Don Merkt’s “Raindrop” sculpture, on a section of the Willamette Greenway Trail that connects the Lab grounds with neighboring Cathedral Park. WordPress Download Manager - Best Download Management Plugin.

NWEA sued EPA and NMFS in 2001, ultimately obtaining a court ruling in 2003 causing EPA to propose federal replacement standards for Oregon. These collect street runoff, trap sediment and allow water to soak into the ground.

In Oregon, standards for temperature have garnered much attention over the decades due to the needs of the many threatened and endangered cold-water fish in the state and the vast changes on the landscape that have raised stream temperatures.

Not signed up? Lab staff and community groups use the building’s spacious, multipurpose conference rooms. The Water Quality Program's mission is to protect and improve Oregon's water quality. The federal Clean Water Act requires the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to assess Oregon’s water quality and prepare a report every two years.

Water Pollution Control Laboratory Welcome to Portland's Water Pollution Control Laboratory. Portland also has a Water Pollution Control Facilities (WPCF) permit issued by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, which requires the city to protect groundwater quality in managing the city’s 9,000 sumps, or Underground Injection Controls (UICs). Water quality standards for toxic chemicals in Oregon have also been a matter of controversy.

But EPA, which is required to act on these submissions within months, failed to act. Environmental Services coordinates the city’s response to the federal permit, which covers stormwater drainage from about 15,500 acres of Portland’s land area. So, in 2006, NWEA sued EPA to force it to approve or disapprove Oregon’s toxic standards. The numeric criteria were established for various life cycle stages of salmonids such as spawning, rearing, and migration. Like Oregon’s temperature standards, Oregon’s toxic standards are a history of NWEA litigation.

Portland’s investments in stormwater projects and programs are in response to these regulations as well as our local goals.

A Community Focal Point. In this way, high temperatures are an indication of many abuses: that streams have filled up with sediment and become too shallow, that trees and riparian vegetation that should shade the water have been eliminated, that cold groundwater is no longer flowing, that too much water has been removed for out-of-stream uses.

State water quality standards, developed under the Clean Water Act, are the measuring stick against which data on stream conditions are evaluated. Protecting Oregon's rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater quality keeps these waters safe for a multitude of beneficial uses such as drinking water, fish habitat, recreation and irrigation. EPA then disapproved Oregon’s criteria for those pollutants. Portland, Oregon environmental officials will learn later this month whether traces of tear gas got into the city’s storm water system.