Oregon
NWEA has protected human health and the environment in Oregon since its inception in 1969. We work to protect the Columbia and Willamette Rivers from harmful dredging and toxic pollution. We seek better logging practices in Oregon’s coastal watersheds where clear-cut mountain tops are the norm. We use the Clean Water Act to force better protection of Oregon’s streams and rivers from many forms of pollutants—from toxics to temperature, for people, fish, and wildlife. And, we pushed for the closure of the state’s only commercial nuclear power plant—the Trojan Nuclear Plant—now shut down, to be replaced with energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. (Photo: Rogue River)
Washington
NWEA has protected human health and the environment in Washington since its inception in 1969, when we opposed the licensing of nuclear power plants across the state. We work to protect the Columbia River from toxic pollution and harmful dredging. We fight to ensure the completion of water pollution clean-up plans and for water quality standards that protect people, fish, and wildlife. We enforce the Clean Water Act to clean up the pollution and habitat degradation of Puget Sound. We seek pollution reductions from cities and farms alike. We brought about pollution controls on the Centralia Coal Plant, at that time the largest single source of sulphur dioxide west of the Mississippi. (Photo: Puget Sound)
Where We Work
Idaho
NWEA has protected water quality in Idaho for people and other species. We have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that Idaho’s water quality standards—from toxics to temperature— meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act. We have sued the federal fish and wildlife agencies to make sure they follow the Endangered Species Act to identify the toxic pollutants that jeopardize threatened and endangered species in Idaho such as salmon and bull trout. We forced EPA to protect the public from arsenic in Idaho’s waters. (Photo: Kathryn Albertson Park along the Boise River)
Nation
NWEA works to improve and protect national laws and policies of the Clean Water Act to ensure strong state regulatory programs across the nation. Through litigation, we improve pollution controls on ship discharges through the Clean Water Act. Past programs and accomplishments include: representing environmental interests on EPA’s 1998 advisory committee on water pollution clean-up plans, preparing comments on EPA national rules, and bringing lawsuits that have established federal legal precedents on the content and enforceability of water pollution.
(Photo: Acadia National Park – Maine)