This new lawsuit builds on four previous cases brought by NWEA to address the unsafe and rising temperatures of streams and rivers in Oregon, starting in 2001. In January 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report on the importance of cold-water refuges in the mainstem Columbia River.
Despite recognizing that restoring beaver populations is key to recovery of imperiled salmon and steelhead species, a federal agency just gave the go-ahead to keep killing beavers in Oregon.
Mercury is a pervasive toxic pollutant that has significant deleterious effects on aquatic life—including imperiled species of salmon—as well as on aquatic-dependent life, such as the birds and mammals that consume those fish.
This new lawsuit builds on four previous cases brought by NWEA to address the unsafe and rising temperatures of streams and rivers in Oregon, starting in 2001. In January 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report on the importance of cold-water refuges in the mainstem Columbia River.
Actions taken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) related to its proposed approval of water quality standards developed by the State of Oregon under the federal Clean Water Act (“CWA”) for temperature and intragravel dissolved oxygen run the risk of jeopardizing threatened and endangered species that depend upon habitat of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. Specifically, EPA’s actions impact Lower Columbia River Chinook salmon (“LCR Chinook”), Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon (“UWR Chinook”), Lower Columbia River steelhead (“LCR steelhead”), Middle Columbia River steelhead (“MCR steelhead”), Upper Columbia River steelhead (“UCR steelhead”), and Upper Willamette River steelhead (“UWR steelhead”) (collectively, “imperiled salmon and steelhead” or the “impacted species”)—among the Pacific Northwest’s iconic salmonid species that depend on cold, clean water for their survival