Clean Water Act enforcement
Here a plume of effluent from a pulp mill that was violating water quality standards near Halsey, OR. WR ended up suing the mill which resulted in significant improvements to the situation.
Clean Water
Willamette Riverkeeper (WR) utilizes the Clean Water Act to help ensure that the Willamette River’s water quality is the best it can be. Even today, 50 years after the act’s passage, there are violations of this important bedrock environmental law.
WR also uses science, restoration and policy work to improve water quality in our communities along the Willamette and its tributaries. Pesticides, emerging contaminants such as flame retardants, legacy pollutants such as PCBs, and many others are a very real concerns today.
WR works with community stakeholders to respond to issues as they are detected, with our River Guardians in certain stretches of the river to investigate potential water quality violations under the Clean Water Act. We also evaluate new permit applications, and applications to renew wastewater discharge permits from industrial and stormwater sources up and down the river.
Over the years our work in his area has resulted in multiple 60-day notices to sue under the Clean Water Act, and resulting settlements with permit holders that have significantly reduced the level of pollution entering the Willamette and its tributaries. These are from sources such as municipal treatment plants, industrial storage lots, pulp and paper mills, and parking lots emitting polluted stormwater.
From time to time WR conducts its own monitoring, screening for toxics or evaluating basic water quality parameters such as temperature and bacteria.
