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January 2, 2012
In December, a federal court heard oral argument in NWEA’s six-year old case challenging Oregon’s water quality standards for temperature.
Salmon, steelhead, and bull trout are the Pacific Northwest’s “canary in the coal mine,” making the temperatures of our rivers the equivalent of the poisonous gas that killed the canaries. Looking at rising stream temperatures is like holding a mirror up to the logging, farming, ranching, development, and water removals that have fundamentally altered the water on which these cold-water species depend. The excess heat means fish have to work harder and eat more, and levels of fish disease . . . → Read More
December 2, 2011
After the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors in Japan, NWEA sought to participate in the process to extend the operating license of the CGS reactor. The Fukushima reactors are all General Electric boiling water reactors with what is termed a Mark I containment system. The CGS reactor at Hanford is a Mark II. The current 40-year operating license expires in 2023 and Energy Northwest, which operates the reactor, is seeking a 20-year license extension.
Working with intervenors in reactor licensing proceedings across the country, NWEA first filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), asking . . . → Read More
November 25, 2011
Dumping sewage sludge (called “biosolids” in the trade) on land is the solution promoted by the federal government since dumping the waste in the ocean was banned in 1992. Neighbors abutting one ranch where the Roseburg Urban Sanitary Authority (RUSA) sprays sewage sludge asked for NWEA’s help, concerned about the effect of sludge on their health and their drinking water. RUSA, the Oregon DEQ, and the U.S. EPA all told the neighbors and staff of elected representatives that the operation at the Hayden Ranch was in compliance with federal and state law. However, in responding to NWEA’s public records . . . → Read More
October 25, 2011
With great sadness we note the passing of Dr. Rudi Nussbaum, professor emeritus of Physics at Portland State University. Dr. Nussbaum, who survived the Holocaust and was an avowed pacifist, was an eloquent opponent of nuclear power and weapons. Most recently he authored the paper Childhood Leukemia and Cancers Near German Nuclear Reactors: Significance, Context, and Ramifications of Recent Studies. This paper shows with high statistical power a strongly increasing risk for childhood malignancies with residential proximity to any of the 16 German nuclear plants. The steepest rise in risk occurs within 5 km (3.1 miles), but significantly elevated . . . → Read More
August 1, 2011
A federal appellate court in Washington, D.C. has rejected a legal challenge by the shipping industry to the permit issued by the Environmental Protection Agency for ships to discharge ballast water containing invasive species. The permit, while issued by EPA, also contained conditions attached by state agencies under a provision in the Clean Water Act. The shipping industry opposed these state conditions primarily because some – such as those of California, New York, and Michigan – are far more stringent than the federal requirements. The D.C. Circuit held that EPA correctly issued the Clean Water Act permit including the . . . → Read More
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