? Previously: In January 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a State of the River Report for Toxics identifying four keystone pollutants fouling the Columbia River.
? What’s new: The EPA released a proposed Toxics Reduction Action Plan on Monday.
? What’s next: The agency will take public comments, then issue a final version sometime in July.
Review the proposed Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Action Plan at
www.epa.gov/region10/columbia
A proposed Columbia River cleanup plan relies heavily on the cooperation of landowners, local governments and environmental groups to reduce toxic pollution in the great river of the West.
The Environmental Protection Agency released the proposal Monday as a first step toward reducing thousands of old and new chemicals finding their way into the 1,200-mile-long river.
? Previously: In January 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a State of the River Report for Toxics identifying four keystone pollutants fouling the Columbia River.
? What's new: The EPA released a proposed Toxics Reduction Action Plan on Monday.
? What's next: The agency will take public comments, then issue a final version sometime in July.
It follows a report issued last year that indicated relatively high levels of four keystone pollutants: Mercury, the pesticide DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls and the modern flame retardant polybrominated diphenyl ether. The latest report lays out a blueprint for reducing human and environmental exposure to toxic pollution over the next five years.
“The federal government’s spending a lot of money on salmon recovery,” said Mary Lou Soscia, the EPA’s Columbia River cleanup coordinator in Portland. “And there are a lot of scientists who believe we’re going to have a hard time if we don’t pay attention to these toxic issues.”
Soscia said the working group that developed the plan figures it will cost $6 million to implement a year’s worth of new actions, including increased monitoring, pesticide reduction initiatives and public education.
The work group included representatives of state and federal government, tribal governments, industries, local governments, nonprofit groups and citizens.
Soscia noted that the proposed plan forms the foundation of the Columbia River Restoration Act of 2010, proposed in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in February.
The new law would provide as much as $40 million annually to monitor pollution and clean it up.
