Columbia River Estuary Report Card Mixed
PORTLAND— Calling the Columbia River the lifeblood of the Pacific Northwest, elected officials recommitted themselves to improving the ecological health of the river’s estuary.
The bistate Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership released its first state of the estuary report on Wednesday, six years after then-Govs. Gary Locke and John Kitzhaber of Oregon agreed during a visit to Vancouver to implement a series of actions to improve watershed health.
The group’s report revealed mixed results, at best.
“More work needs to be done,” Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said during the announcement at the World Trade Center in Portland. “The estuary is a bellwether of how we are doing in the Pacific Northwest environmentally, socially and economically,” he said.
The Columbia is one of 28 estuaries included in the National Estuary Program, which allows federal funding for watershed improvement projects.
Industry groups initially fought the Columbia’s inclusion in the program in the 1990s, worrying that it could lead to federal control of efforts to clean up the river. But the program has steered clear of regulatory crackdowns on point-source polluters such as pulp and paper mills.
One reason: Most polluters are hard to track.
The program’s 1999 management plan attributed three-quarters of the pollutants entering the river to “nonpoint” sources everything from motor oil dripping from highways to livestock tromping along streams. That’s why the partnership has emphasized the importance of educating students and involving citizens in restoration projects, a point underscored by Kulongoski in an interview after Wednesday’s event.
“Ultimately, all of us are going to have to participate,” he said. “This is not just government saying, ‘This is what we’re going to do to improve the estuary.’ It’s going to take the business community, citizens and young people.”
Continue reading this story from The Columbian:
Estuary Report Card Mixed
There are currently no comments on this article
Please note that comments are not posted until approved by our site administrator, in order to prevent comment spam. We do not censor comments but ask that you do add value to the discussion and be respectful.