A CALL TO ACTION—Sen. Charlie Ringo addresses the media on the banks of the Willamette River to call for legislative action on the proposal to close the toxic loophole. Behind him are Sen. Frank Shields, OSPIRG’s Rhett Lawrence and Attorney Brent Foster. Photo credit: Dave Miller

Our beloved Willamette River is in trouble—again.

The river that has long been so vital to area residents—and which forms the natural, economic and symbolic backbone of western Oregon—has become a federal Superfund toxic waste site for the five-and-a-half-mile stretch that flows through the Portland Harbor.

And still, millions of pounds of toxic chemicals continue to be dis-charged into the Willamette River and its tributaries every year.

In addition, because of a loophole in Oregon’s clean water law, polluters in the state are being allowed to exceed water quality standards and discharge chemicals at toxic levels into many of the state’s waterways.

OSPIRG worked in the 2005 legislative session to close the loophole in our clean water law that allows “toxic mixing zones.

Permitting Pollution

The federal Clean Water Act mandates that anyone who wants to discharge waste into the nation’s water bodies must obtain a permit to do so.

In Oregon, those permits are issued by the Department of Environ-mental Quality (DEQ), which also sets Water Quality Standards that are designed to protect the state’s waterways.

These standards are supposed to govern how much pollution a facility would be allowed to discharge without harming the waterway.

In theory, those standards would apply to the discharges at the “end of the pipe,” so that a facility would not be able to discharge a toxic chemical at a level that exceeded the guidelines set to protect human health and the natural environment.

However, because of the toxic mixing zone loophole, DEQ is al-lowing facilities to exceed water quality standards at the end of the pipe, as long as there is some point in the river where the toxins have been diluted enough to meet the standards.

This creates large zones in our waterways where polluters do not have to comply with the standards DEQ has set.

In other words, polluters are being given permits to discharge toxic chemicals in toxic concentrations into the Willamette and other rivers in the state.

There are a number of toxic mixing zones around some of the state’s most popular fishing areas, such as Willamette Falls, where toxicity standards for chemicals such as lead and mercury may be violated by 700 to 800 percent.

Sometimes toxic mixing zones can exceed 100,000 square feet in size.

DEQ allows toxic mixing zones in virtually every discharge permit it issues, including scores of permits on the Willamette and even in the Portland Harbor Superfund site.

However, DEQ does not know how many toxic mixing zones there are in the state, does not have a map of where they are located and does not know how many tons of toxics are released into Oregon rivers because of them.

In addition, there is no requirement that these zones be marked off or signed in any way, so there is no way to know if you are fishing or swimming in a toxic area.

Off To A Strong Start

For this reason, OSPIRG joined coalition partners Willamette River-keeper, Columbia Riverkeeper and the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club behind Senate Bill 555 in the 2005 legislative session to close this toxic loophole.

The bill, which would have required DEQ to aggressively phase out toxic mixing zones in our state, was introduced in February with Senate President Peter Courtney and Senate Environment and Land Use Committee Chair Charlie Ringo as its chief sponsors.

OSPIRG’s proposal did make substantial progress in the 2005 session, but unfortunately it did not get enacted into law. Our coalition, however, did make toxic mixing zones one of the biggest environmental issues in this legislative session.

The policy, if it had been enacted, would have been an important first step toward cleaning up the Willamette River and the rest of Oregon’s waterways.

Indeed, it would have been the most critical step the state has taken in 30 years to protect our water quality.

However, it was also a very reasonable proposal that would have helped clean up our rivers while also ensuring that there would not be an adverse effect on the economy.

Oregon law already states that “pollution of any of the waters of the state is declared to be not a reasonable or natural use of such waters and to be contrary to the public policy of the State of Oregon.”

The OSPIRG proposal would simply have clarified that, under Oregon law, polluters cannot dump toxic waste in toxic concentrations into our rivers and streams.

Dischargers would have needed to treat their wastes on site so that the water quality standards are met at the end of the pipe, instead of being given permission to degrade the waters that belong to all Oregon residents.

A Policy Solution To Protect The Environment

So what exactly would our proposal have accomplished?

The short answer is that it would have required DEQ to phase out the issuance of toxic mixing zones in permits by 2011 for industrial sources and 2013 for municipalities.

However, the bill also provided exemptions if the phasing out of a mixing zone would pose “a significant and unreasonable burden” to the permittee due to impacts on jobs, costs or technology limitations.

OSPIRG and its coalition partners are sensitive to economic conditions in Oregon and believe that the bill’s provisions would have ensured that the measure did not cause undue hardship to businesses in Oregon.

Any structural changes required to retrofit facilities could provide a boost to Oregon jobs.

Building Toward The Future

Quality of life and protection of our environment are hallmarks of what makes Oregon a special place to live.

In this case, the bottom line is that if Oregon residents do not want the state’s rivers to become toxic, the dumping of toxic pollutants at toxic concentrations must be stopped.

Closing this toxic loophole will not solve all of the problems confronting Oregon’s waterways, but it is a necessary and crucial first step.

Oregon state authorities set water quality standards for a reason: to protect human health and the environment.

If we are truly serious about pro-tecting our health and getting the Willamette and other rivers cleaned up, we simply must close this toxic loophole and phase out toxic mix-ing zones in Oregon.

OSPIRG and its allies will continue to work on this critical issue.

Whether it’s the 2007 session, administrative or executive action in the interim or perhaps even a citizen ballot initiative, we are confident that toxic mixing zones will be dealt with.