Rogue River Cleanup Moves Forward

Rogue River cleanup has taken a step forward a year after the City of Medford was sued in federal court by Northwest Environment Advocates (NWEA) for violating the Clean Water Act. NWEA and Medford have agreed to work together to resolve this lawsuit. On May 21, 2019, U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon Judge Mark D. Clarke granted a joint motion filed by NWEA and Medford to hold NWEA’s lawsuit in abeyance through April 2020.  According to the agreement, over the course of the next year the parties will work cooperatively on water quality monitoring, data analysis, and technological assessments that are necessary to achieve a complete resolution of all of NWEA’s claims.  The substantive terms of the interim settlement will remain confidential through April 2020.  NWEA remains committed to ensuring that in the future Medford complies with the Clean Water Act and Oregon water quality standards.

Background

On May 16, 2018, NWEA sued the City of Medford (OR) for unlawfully polluting the Rogue River, one of the nation’s original eight rivers protected as “Wild and Scenic.”  The lawsuit alleges Medford’s discharge of nutrient pollution in treated sewage violates its Clean Water Act permit by causing the growth of algae and changing the river’s natural composition of aquatic bugs.

The lawsuit comes as nutrient pollution is becoming an increasingly significant water quality problem across the country, including in Puget Sound.  Despite the effects of nutrient pollution, states such as Oregon and Washington are refusing to take regulatory action to curtail it.  Known as plant fertilizers for gardens and farms, the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus also cause lush and unwelcome growth of algae and aquatic weeds in rivers and lakes, significantly altering their food webs.

Foam on the Rogue River

Medford’s sliming of the Rogue River is equal parts the fault of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the City.  The regulatory agency in charge of protecting public waters, Oregon DEQ never told Medford to clean up its discharge.  And Medford has been on notice for over five years yet it has done nothing to clean up its mess.

NWEA’s 2018 lawsuit was based on three studies:

• First, in January 2013, the Rogue Fly Fishers and Federation of Fly Fishers commissioned a study on Medford’s effect on the Rogue River. Prepared by a former DEQ scientist, Rick Hafele, the study focused on algae and aquatic bugs, showing significant differences between Rogue River water quality immediately upstream and downstream of Medford’s discharge outfall.
• Second, in September 2013, Oregon DEQ issued a report that confirmed that Medford was causing detrimental changes to the Rogue River. DEQ did nothing.
• Third, in April 2014, Medford issued its own study, prepared by Brown & Caldwell, that also found an increase in algae and other impairments downstream of Medford’s discharge. It also found that the levels of nutrients—nitrogen and phosphorus—were higher than upstream.

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