State has new water standards to
protect fish
http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=76343
Critics say the changes
aren't enough.
BETH CASPER
Statesman Journal
March 3, 2004
State and federal
environmental-quality experts issued new
water-quality standards for every fish-bearing
waterway in Oregon Tuesday.
The new standards map out optimal water
temperatures depending on time of year and
waterway and are intended to protect endangered
salmon and trout species.
“We have essentially redesigned 30 years of
water-quality standards,” said Mark Charles of
the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
The standards are the result of a successful
lawsuit filed by Northwest Environmental
Advocates of Portland that claimed that the old
standards did not meet requirements of the
federal Endangered Species Act or the federal
Clean Water Act.
The standards will affect all discharges from
pipes and nonpoint pollution sources, such as
runoff from agriculture, because those pollution
sources affect temperature in rivers.
The standards are effective immediately;
however, cities and industrial sites only need
to meet the new standards upon renewal of their
water-quality permits — about once every five
years.
For the Salem area, the new standards aren’t
much different from the old ones; for the
mid-Willamette River, the new standard is 0.4
degrees higher.
The lack of change is partly what has critics so
upset about the new standards.
“Our belief is that this set of standards
amounts to one gigantic loophole for industrial
and municipal sources and land activities,” said
Nina Bell, executive director of the group that
filed the lawsuit. “We think that too much of
the landscape (for endangered species) will be
too hot.”
Some experts contend that threatened salmon and
trout need cold water to thrive.
Bell said that the state can “fudge” on where it
will measure the temperature of discharge from a
pipe.
The standards require officials to measure
temperature at the edge of the “mixing zone,”
which is the area where the discharge mixes with
river water.
“In Oregon, that zone is set wherever it needs
to be set,” she said. “It’s completely variable
… It just moves to where there is no “impact” on
temperature, and then it is determined that
there is no impact on temperature.”
Bell doesn’t blame it all on DEQ.
“Political powers do not want to be more
restrictive on logging and farming and grazing,”
she said. “So we’ve seen governor after
governor, along with legislatures, not doing
anything to change the status quo.”
Under the lawsuit, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency could have either written its
own standards or approved the Oregon DEQ’s
standards. On Tuesday, the federal agency
accepted Oregon’s new rules — validation for the
state’s efforts.
“I salute the scientists, agency staff,
environmental groups, industry, tribes and all
of those who have worked on the temperature
problem for the past several years,” said EPA
regional administrator John Iani. “Their
combined efforts have brought Oregon these new
water-quality/temperature standards that are
truly the best in the business.”
The new standards also raised the required level
of dissolved oxygen in the water between gravel
used for spawning fish.
Locally, the new rules will allow the city of
Salem’s Willow Lake Treatment Plant to discharge
slightly warmer water into the Willamette River.
Upgrades to the treatment plant will increase
local sewer bills, but the new water standards
might reduce those increases, said Mike
Kortenhof of DEQ’s Salem office.
“In the Salem area, the changes aren’t that
dramatic,” he said. “As with Willow Lake, it
might cost point sources less to comply.”
Bill Bakke, executive director of the Native
Fish Society, praised the state Department of
Environmental Quality for letting science lead
the discussion about water-temperature
standards. He called them “progressive and
well-informed,” but he noted that most waterways
in the state are not meeting standards; they are
too hot.
The Willamette River often exceeds temperature
standards in the summer.
“A lot of streams are in lethal conditions for
salmon rearing,” Bakke said. “How do you create
the watershed changes to make these standards
real?”
Beth Casper can be reached at (503)
589-6994.
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New standards
What happened: The
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, with
approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, issued statewide water-quality standards
Tuesday that mainly affect temperature in
fish-bearing waterways.
The change: The state now has
online maps of Oregon waterways with
descriptions of the optimal temperature for the
survival of salmon and trout species for each
tributary and time of year. The old standards
used an all-encompassing 64 degrees for the
endangered fish.
The impact: The standards require that
industrial and municipal sites with
water-quality permits comply with the new
standards upon renewal of their permits. They
also affect nonpoint source pollution, such as
runoff from agriculture and forestry practices.
The controversy: These standards are
meant to protect salmon and trout habitat and
increase their populations, but critics wonder
whether they will have the intended effect. Some
environmentalists argue that some governments
and businesses don’t have to meet strict enough
standards. Those affected might argue the
standards are too strict.
What's at stake: Recovery of endangered
salmon and trout populations and economic
welfare of communities and their businesses.
Links
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
approved the Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality’s
water-quality standards Tuesday. Call (800)
452-4011 for more information about the new
standards.
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