Agency overview | |
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Formed | 1938 |
Dissolved | 1969 |
Superseding agency |
The Oregon State Sanitary Authority (OSSA) was the first agency in the U.S. state of Oregon that was charged with protecting the environment. [1] In 1938, Oregon voters, by a three-to-one margin, approved an initiative to regulate water pollution and to create an enforcement agency under the jurisdiction of the Oregon State Board of Health. Political pressure that led to the initiative had begun as early as the 1920s, when the Board of Health, the U.S. Public Health Service, the Izaak Walton League, and others had expressed concerns about water pollution and its threats to human health. [2] Pollution had caused many fish kills on the Willamette River in the 1920s, and Portland, on the lower river, had often closed its part of the Willamette to swimming because of sewage in the water. [3]
Since many of the biggest polluters were along the Willamette, OSSA focused its efforts there. [2] Raw domestic sewage from cities and wastes from pulp mills, paper mills, and other industrial sites produced the greatest volumes of pollutants. [3] By the late 1940s, OSSA had induced communities along the river to install sewage treatment plants. However, the agency had less success with mill owners, who resisted pollution controls on grounds of the expense. [3] Of particular concern were sulfite process mills that discharged plumes of waste that were deadly to many aquatic plants and animals. [2] As late as 1969, low oxygen levels related to pollution were preventing upstream migration of salmon on the Willamette. The fish were able to continue only after Governor Tom McCall, the OSSA chairman, ordered the temporary closure of four sulfite mills along the river. [2]
In 1969, the Oregon Legislative Assembly replaced OSSA with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Its responsibilities include protecting the state's air quality as well as its water quality; managing solid- and hazardous-waste disposal; helping with contamination cleanup, and enforcing the state's environmental laws. [4]
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is 187 miles (301 km) long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward between the Oregon Coast Range and the Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form the Willamette Valley, a basin that contains two-thirds of Oregon's population, including the state capital, Salem, and the state's largest city, Portland, which surrounds the Willamette's mouth at the Columbia.
Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber, even vegetable matter from restaurants. Industrial waste may be solid, semi-solid or liquid in form. It may be hazardous waste or non-hazardous waste. Industrial waste may pollute the nearby soil or adjacent water bodies, and can contaminate groundwater, lakes, streams, rivers or coastal waters. Industrial waste is often mixed into municipal waste, making accurate assessments difficult. An estimate for the US goes as high as 7.6 billion tons of industrial waste produced annually, as of 2017. Most countries have enacted legislation to deal with the problem of industrial waste, but strictness and compliance regimes vary. Enforcement is always an issue.
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies. Contaminants can come from one of four main sources: sewage discharges, industrial activities, agricultural activities, and urban runoff including stormwater. Water pollution is either surface water pollution or groundwater pollution. This form of pollution can lead to many problems, such as the degradation of aquatic ecosystems or spreading water-borne diseases when people use polluted water for drinking or irrigation. Another problem is that water pollution reduces the ecosystem services that the water resource would otherwise provide.
The Blackstone River is a river in the United States that flows through the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It is 48 mi (77 km) long with a drainage area of 540 sq mi (1,400 km2) and drains into the Seekonk tidal river at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Its long history of industrial use has caused significant pollution, with the United States Environmental Protection Agency describing it as “the most polluted river in the country because of high concentrations of toxic sediments.”
The Cape Fear River is a 191.08-mile-long blackwater river in east-central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River in the town of Moncure, North Carolina. Its river basin is the largest in the state: 9,149 sq mi.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is a department of New York state government. The department guides and regulates the conservation, improvement, and protection of New York's natural resources; manages Forest Preserve lands in the Adirondack and Catskill parks, state forest lands, and wildlife management areas; regulates sport fishing, hunting and trapping; and enforces the state's environmental laws and regulations. Its regulations are compiled in Title 6 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. It was founded in 1970, replacing the Conservation Department, and is headed by Basil Seggos.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is the chief regulatory agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for protecting and enhancing the state's natural resources and managing sanitary and toxic waste disposal. The agency employs approximately 700 scientists, engineers, technicians, administrators, and environmental specialists. It has headquarters in Portland, regional administrative offices in Bend, Eugene, and Portland; and field offices in Coos Bay, Medford, Pendleton, Salem, and The Dalles. The Laboratory and Environmental Assessment Division operates an environmental laboratory in Hillsboro. The agency's director has the authority to impose fines for violations of the state's anti-pollution laws. In addition to its state mandate, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delegated authority to DEQ to administer federal environmental programs including the federal Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act within the state.
Johnson Creek is a 25-mile (40 km) tributary of the Willamette River in the Portland metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Oregon. Part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River, its catchment consists of 54 square miles (140 km2) of mostly urban land occupied by about 180,000 people as of 2012. Passing through the cities of Gresham, Portland, and Milwaukie, the creek flows generally west from the foothills of the Cascade Range through sediments deposited by glacial floods on a substrate of basalt. Though polluted, it is free-flowing along its main stem and provides habitat for salmon and other migrating fish.
Clean Water Services is the water resources management utility for more than 600,000 residents in urban Washington County, Oregon and small portions of Multnomah County, Oregon and Clackamas County, Oregon, in the United States. Clean Water Services operates four wastewater treatment facilities, constructs and maintains flood management and water quality projects, and manages flow into the Tualatin River to improve water quality and protect fish habitat. They are headquartered in Hillsboro.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is the Florida government agency responsible for environmental protection.
Fanno Creek is a 15-mile (24 km) tributary of the Tualatin River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River, its watershed covers about 32 square miles (83 km2) in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties, including about 7 square miles (18 km2) within the Portland city limits.
The Columbia Slough is a narrow waterway, about 19 miles (31 km) long, in the floodplain of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its source in the Portland suburb of Fairview, the Columbia Slough meanders west through Gresham and Portland to the Willamette River, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Willamette's confluence with the Columbia. It is a remnant of the historic wetlands between the mouths of the Sandy River to the east and the Willamette River to the west. Levees surround much of the main slough as well as many side sloughs, detached sloughs, and nearby lakes. Drainage district employees control water flows with pumps and floodgates. Tidal fluctuations cause reverse flow on the lower slough.
The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is a department of the government of Oklahoma under the Governor of Oklahoma. It is responsible for protecting human health and for safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land. DEQ is chiefly responsible for the environmental policy of Oklahoma. It is governed by a thirteen member Environmental Quality Board appointed by the Governor, which in turn appoints an Executive Director to administer the Department.
The Oregon PHL/DEQ Laboratories are the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) laboratories located in a single building in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. DHS operates the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory (OSPHL), and the DEQ operates their Laboratory and Environmental Assessment Division at the site. The laboratories previously were located at Portland State University, moving to the new location near Cornelius Pass Road and the Sunset Highway in northeast Hillsboro in 2007.
The Regional Coalition for Clean Rivers and Streams (Coalition), a partnership of eight public agencies in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area; City of Portland, Oregon, City of Gresham, Oregon, City of Vancouver, Washington, Clean River Partners of Clackamas County, Clark County, Washington, Clean Water Services, Metro and Multnomah County, advocates on behalf of the local waterways within the territories through outreach and marketing.
Alkali Lake Chemical Waste Dump is a hazardous waste disposal site near the southwest edge of Alkali Lake, a seasonally dry playa in Lake County, Oregon. It is in the Summer Lake watershed. The site has been the focus of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) efforts to remediate a complex mix of toxic chemicals. Problems were initially caused by the dumping of hazardous waste near the lakebed between 1969 and 1971.
Lynn Henning is a farmer and environmentalist from Michigan, United States. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2010 for her focus on water quality and for fighting pollution from concentrated animal feeding facilities. She exposed the polluting practices of livestock factory farms in rural Michigan, gaining the attention of the federal EPA and prompting state regulators to issue hundreds of citations for water quality violations. Henning currently works for the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project (SRAP). She also won the Planet Defender Award 2012 for her advocacy and her work.
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) founded in 1973, is a Wyoming state agency to protect, conserve and enhance the environment of Wyoming "through a combination of monitoring, permitting, inspection, enforcement and restoration/remediation activities". It consists of 6 divisions and since 1992, the Environmental Quality Council (EQC), a separate operating agency of 7 governor-appointed members.
Willamette Riverkeeper is a non profit organization formed in 1996 in order to protect and restore the water quality and natural habitat of the Willamette River. WR was the 13th Riverkeeper organization formed after the original Hudson Riverkeeper. Today there are over 300 Riverkeeper, Baykeeper, and Coastkeeper organizations in the United States and internationally. Each organization is independent, but subscribes first and foremost to enforcing the Clean Water Act, or related international laws.
New Jersey Water Pollution Control Law consists of legislative and regulatory measures intended to limit the amount of harmful substances found in the state's lakes, rivers, and groundwater. In New Jersey, the federal Clean Water Act and the state Water Pollution Control Act are the most significant pieces of water pollution control legislation. These laws are implemented and enforced by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).