Rosemere Neighborhood Association

Alexandra Cousteau — Expedition Blue Planet 2010

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:10:55 +0000

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

admin — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:48:23 +0000

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)

admin — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:53:22 +0000

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

admin — Mon, 31 May 2010 06:11:56 +0000

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

admin — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:47:29 +0000

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.

Coalition Urges US Energy Secretary Chu to Withdraw Decision to Use Hanford as a National Radioactive Waste Dump

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:26:20 +0000
On April 29, 2010, a coalition of Northwest environmental and public health groups, including the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, urging him to withdraw the Department of Energy's decisions to use Hanford, WA, as a national radioactive waste dump. The letter requests: "that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) withdraw its 2000 and 2004 Records of Decision selecting Hanford as a disposal site for large volumes of radioactive low-level waste (LLW) and mixed low-level waste (MLLW) from across the Nation. The Department’s own draft Tank Closure and Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement (TC&WM EIS) clearly demonstrates that importing and burying off-site waste at Hanford poses serious human health and environmental impacts.

Oil Spill Disaster off Louisiana Coast

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:17:04 +0000
British Petroleum Oil Spill off Louisiana Coast Damage assessments of the oil spill off the Louisiana coast continue to mount as the spill now threatens 4 states and is said to be growing at 5 times the rate it was originally measured. More than 200,000 gallons a day is pouring out from the sunken oil rig and threatens coastal nature preserves, parks, fisheries, and the health and livelihood of residents. From USA Today: NEW ORLEANS — Time appeared to be running out Thursday to prevent a disaster that could harm the ecosystem along the Gulf Coast as 210,000 gallons of oil has leaked into the water every day since an oil rig exploded and sank last week.

Coal Free Washington Town Hall Meeting Held in Vancouver

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:06:30 +0000
TransAlta Coal Plant, Centralia , WA (image: Sierra Club) In the fall of 2007, the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, along with five other Northwest environmental groups including Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, Washington Environmental Council, Sierra Club’s Cascade Chapter and Northwest Energy Coalition were granted the legal status to intervene in the permitting process for Energy Northwest’s proposed 680-megawatt coal-fueled Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama, Washington. The intervention was successful, and Energy Northwest withdrew its application to build the coal fired power plant. Environmental groups provided testimony regarding the contamination caused by coal fired power plants, and the public was mobilized to object to Energy Northwest’s plans that would have polluted the Columbia River and would have impacted the health of local residents. In an effort to make Washington State a coal-free state, conservation groups are now focusing on the aged TransAlta coal fired power plant in Centralia. During the week of Earth Day, a coalition of organizations sponsored Town Hall meetings in Western Washington to discuss the environmental and public health impacts caused by coal plants, and to mobilize efforts to shut down the TransAlta plant, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, mercury pollution, and coal haze that that invades 12 wilderness areas in Washington State. A study published in Open Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of ten scientists from the United States (including NASA), the United Kingdom and France argue that a prompt moratorium on new coal use and a complete phase out of existing coal emissions is needed by 2030 to avert environmental catastrophe. The report concludes: “The stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis.” Rosemere attended the Town Hall meeting in Vancouver, April 21, 2010, sponsored by the Sierra Club. Panelists included Maye Thompson from Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Doug Howell of the Sierra Club, and Ted Nace, author of the book Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal. The Sierra Club has formed the Coal Free campaign with a chapter working in Washington State.

New EPA Data On Civil Rights Backlog May Help Reshape Equity Agenda (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:33:44 +0000
This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on April 9, 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): Rosemere New EPA Data IEPA 04-10 Click here to view the EPA Spreadsheet (pdf format): Updated [...]

Landmark Pact Could Speed EPA Review Of Stalled Civil Rights Complaints (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

admin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:47:09 +0000
This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on March 26, 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): Rosemere Landmark Pact IEPA 03-10