Issues

Energy

Water is necessary for life. Streams, rivers, lakes, and estuaries must be protected from pollution discharged from cities and factories. Water quality is also a mirror of human actions on the land, such as logging, farming, grazing, irrigation, mining, and urban development. Protecting the quality of our water means recognizing the connection between all human activities and this precious resource.

Regulating Water Pollution

Types of Pollution

Specific Water Topics

The energy we depend upon to cook, illuminate and heat our homes, and move about comes at a cost to the environment and our health. The challenge is to choose energy sources that will not ruin life as we know it—whether through climate change, radiation-induced cancers, or habitat destruction—yet will be there when we need it. The most efficient and clean sources of energy are not necessarily those that will reap the greatest financial rewards for energy producers.

Energy Sources

Protecting the health of species—fish, birds, amphibians, mammals— and protecting human health from pollution are often synonymous. Toxic contaminants have the worst effects at the top of the food chain—on people, eagles, and orca whales, for example. But many of the most devastating effects of pollution can disrupt entire food webs—those carefully balanced worlds in which microscopic plants and animals are food for yet larger creatures that are the prey for small fish that are eaten by the iconic salmon—that underpin our environment and our lives.

Regulating Threats to Species

Pollution and Habitat Threats to Species

Related News

EPA, Issue Standards For Oregon Toxics Or Else!

NWEA sends "Notice of Intent" to file Lawsuit over Oregon Toxics. NWEA informed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today to expect a lawsuit in 60 days due to its failure to ensure Oregon toxics standards protect threatened and endangered salmon. NWEA ...

Federal Agencies Disapprove Oregon Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program

Poor Logging Practices Cause Agencies to Disapprove Oregon Coastal NonPoint Pollution Program. Oregon's coastal nonpoint pollution program was disapproved by federal agencies today based on the state’s poor logging practices, as a result of a 2009 lawsuit brought ...

Ballast Water Appeal Goes to NY

Federal Appeals Court in New York to Hear Oral Argument in Ballast Water Appeal  On Friday, January 30, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, located in New York, will hear oral argument in a challenge to the legality of the U.S. ...

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