Rosemere Neighborhood Association Rotating Header Image

Posts under ‘Water Quality’

Progress on Rosemere’s Superfund Petition for Camp Bonneville WA

Dec 13th, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

Background: Camp Bonneville Superfund Petition, Submitted by Rosemere Neigborhood Association & Columbia Riverkeeper

In February 2009, following Rosemere’s extensive involvement in what we consider a faulty clean up action plan at the Camp Bonneville military installation, Vancouver WA, Rosemere and Columbia Riverkeeper submitted a formal petition to the US Environmental Protection Agency to list the property on the National Priorities Superfund List.

See the original superfund petition here: http://www.rosemerena.org/home/2009/04/06/preliminary-superfund-petition-for-camp-bonneville-february-3-2009/

The goal of the petition was to bring EPA back into the project in order to correct failing cleanup efforts, currently at a complete standstill. EPA had been a major participant in cleanup efforts more than 10 years ago, but in 2003, EPA withdrew its involvement citing a lack of cooperation from both Clark County government and the US Department of Defense that owned the contaminated property. Camp Bonneville was a former 4000 acre international military training site where munitions, including missiles, grenades, and chemical warfare were used in live drills.

Documented groundwater contamination at the site has entered the Troutdale Aquifer System, a federally designated Sole Source Aquifer that was petitioned by Rosemere and Columbia Riverkeeper and established in 2006. The source of the contamination is a vast collection (both known and unknown) of buried military munitions and chemicals that have leached into the soil and groundwater throughout the site. Rosemere contends that the plume of toxic chemicals has been mobile for many years, and may have exited to compound, threatening Lacamas Creek and its tributaries, and Lacamas Lake which is hydrologically connected to the Columbia River.

Rosemere Neighborhood Association & Columbia Riverkeeper Submit Letter to Ecology RE: Alcoa/Evergreen Aluminum Smelter Supplemental Cleanup Action Plan

Dec 7th, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

Rosemere Neighborhood Association and Columbia Riverkeeper have for years raised serious concerns about Washington Department of Ecology’s cleanup and oversight at the former Alcoa/Evergreen Aluminum Smelter. One of the major concerns is Ecology’s delay of the cleanup process by separating the East Landfill groundwater contamination decision from other cleanup actions. As part of the public [...]

Environmentalists Suggest EPA Close Civil Rights Office (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

Oct 18th, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on October 15, 2010. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2010. No further distribution is permitted. Click here to view article (pdf format): Environmentalists Suggest EPA Close Civil Rights Office 10-15-10

Stormy Weather for Clark County Stormwater Plan

Sep 28th, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

New story from the Public News Service – Washington: September 28, 2010 Stormy Weather for Clark County Stormwater Plan TUMWATER, Wash. – How tough should counties be on developers in planning and controlling storm water runoff, a major source of water pollution? That’s the issue in a case to be argued this week at the [...]

Press Release: Pollution Control Board Hearing

Sep 17th, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

Press Release******Press Release******Press Release September 17, 2010 Pollution panel to weigh closing illegal loopholes in Washington’s building rules and strong controls for polluted runoff WHAT: The Pollution Control Hearings Board will begin a trial to determine whether to throw out Clark County’s “special lopsided deal” under the state stormwater code. The County’s plan allows harmful [...]

Alexandra Cousteau — Expedition Blue Planet 2010

Jul 26th, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

Alexandra Cousteau onstage at the Bagdad Theatre for Expedition Blue Planet 2010
July 21, 2010, Bagdad Theatre, Portland Oregon

Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of Jacques Cousteau, continues her family legacy with another journey, a 138-day interactive tour of the US, Canada and Mexico, to explore critical water issues. Accompanied by a production crew who film, broadcast, blog, and edit on a biodiesel bus, Ms. Cousteau will travel more than 14,500 miles to film water problems and host community watershed programs. The tour includes coverage of the dwindling Colorado River, the Gulf Coast plagued by the BP Oil Spill, the Great Lakes that are experiencing hot temperatures and low levels, Chesapeake Bay suffering from stormwater pollution and sewage, and the Tennessee Valley where coal ash and mountaintop removal mining poison the water.

On Day 20 of the tour that started in Washington DC, the crew appeared at the Bagdad Theatre in Portland after traveling from Vancouver BC. The Portland stop was sponsored by Willamette Riverkeeper, where Ms. Cousteau discussed the project, showed film footage, and fielded questions from the audience. The Blue Legacy project was started in 2008 by Ms. Cousteau as a dedication to her grandfather’s famous call, “You have to go and see.”

Biodiesel bus used by the tour, parked outside the Bagdad theatre. The bus was formerly owned by Sir Paul McCartney
Last year, Blue Legacy traveled 100 days across five continents to study global water problems, discovering similar themes among various cultures: water is a source of spirituality, conflict, and the basis of agribusiness. From the Ganges in India, the plains of Botswana, the Jordan River in Israel and Palestine, and the Cajun lands of the lower Mississippi River, a universal statement recorded from people of all these cultures shows how humanity has common ties, regardless of age, status, or religion: “Water is life.”

National Marine Fisheries Service Says Clark County’s Stormwater Plan is Deficient and Will Harm Salmon

Jun 23rd, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

Under a lopsided deal reached in early January 2010, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) agreed to allow Clark County to retain inadequate stormwater standards for new development in exchange for a promise to implement county-funded stormwater mitigation projects. In February 2010, Rosemere Neighborhood Association, along with Columbia Riverkeeper, and Northwest Environmental Defense Center, appealed Ecology’s special deal with Clark County to the State Pollution Control Hearings Board in an attempt to repeal Clark County’s faulty stormwater management plan. The three conservation groups also filed a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue Clark County in federal court for violations of the Clean Water Act. Earthjustice, a public interest law firm, represents the three conservation groups in these legal challenges.

Local residents and clean water advocates argue Washington State authorized inadequate development standards in Clark County’s stormwater permit that will generate illegal stormwater pollution, and that the stormwater pollution will also harm endangered species of salmon and their habitats.

Clark County’s Phase I municipal stormwater permit is issued under the National Pollutant Discharge & Elimination System program (NPDES) and is administered by the US Environmental Protection Agency. In turn, EPA defers management and enforcement of the federal stormwater management permit to Ecology. In the appeal, Rosemere et al cite that Ecology is not properly enforcing the federal stormwater permit.

In June 2010, The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) issued public comments on Clark County’s alternative municipal Phase I stormwater permit. Clark County is home to 15 endangered species of salmon, steelhead, smelt and sturgeon. NMFS states that Clark County’s stormwater plan will not meet required goals to protect these fisheries and concludes that “adverse effects to listed (endangered) salmon will be significantly increased.” Stephen W. Landino, the Washington State Director for Habitat Conservation, states that NMFS “strongly encourage(s) the EPA to object to the issuance of this (Clark County) permit.”

To read the NMFS comment letter, please click here.

Agency Civil Rights Office Shuffle Replaces Director With Ex-Interim Head (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

Jun 23rd, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on June 18, 2010. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2010. No further distribution is permitted.

Click here to view article (pdf format):

Agency Civil Rights Office Shuffle Replaces Director EPA 06-10

Columbia River Crossing Project Environmental Impact Analysis

May 31st, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

I-5 Interstate Bridge Over Columbia River

In Summer 2008, a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) was released on the Columbia River Crossing Project, and various environmental organizations, including Rosemere Neighborhood Association, submitted public comment to show that the draft document was incomplete and full of data gaps. Concerns were also raised regarding the draft’s compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

Since the release of the DEIS, Rosemere has met several times with Columbia River Crossing (CRC) staff and has raised concerns regarding the project’s impact on the environment, including the aquifer system that provides Clark County residents with drinking water and local streams within the construction footprint.

In 2005, Rosemere submitted a petition to EPA requesting that agency to designate the Troutdale and Unconsolidated Alluvium Aquifer System in Clark County, Washington, as a Sole Source Aquifer. The EPA defines the Sole Source Aquifer Program as a tool used to protect drinking water supplies in areas with few or no alternative sources to groundwater resources, and where such an aquifer is vulnerable to contamination. Sole Source designation requires at least a 50% dependence on an aquifer for its potable water supply. Factual analysis provided by Rosemere and its partners shows that 99.4% of the potable water used in Clark County is obtained from groundwater. In August, 2006, EPA officially granted Rosemere’s petition and designated Clark County’s Troutdale Aquifer System as a federally protected Sole Source Aquifer. One of Rosemere’s goals was to ensure adequate environmental review of the CRC project under the federal Sole Source Aquifer program.

Video: Dvija Michael Bertish Interview with Jake Thomas on the Portland Observer Hour

May 13th, 2010
by admin.
Comments are off for this post

Please click on the arrow to begin the video.

Dvija Michael Bertish recently sat down with Jake Thomas, Web Editor & News Reporter of the Portland Observer on Portland Observer Hour, and discussed the history of Rosemere Neighborhood Association’s landmark environmental justice case as well as our dedicated work for environmental protection and improving the status of environmental justice communities.

← Earlier Posts
Newer Posts →

Videos, Slideshows and Podcasts by Cincopa Wordpress Plugin