Oregon Water Pollution Discharge Permits

Under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may authorize states to issue permits to dischargers of water pollution. Even so, these permits must meet the requirements of federal law as well as state law. Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issues these Clean Water Act permits to all industrial and municipal dischargers in Oregon.

Busting the Myth that Permitted Pollution Sources Have Cleaned Up

There is a myth that so-called point sources—the dischargers that require the Clean Water Act’s National Discharge Pollutant Elimination System (NPDES) permits—are largely controlled and that the nation’s pollution problems are primarily caused by non-point sources, the polluted runoff from lands. While nonpoint source pollution is a major, uncontrolled problem, point sources are far from adequately controlled.

There are many reasons for this. First, the EPA is required to establish minimum treatment standards to ensure that pollution is minimized no matter where the source is located. But EPA has been very slow to complete and to update these national effluent guidelines. And EPA has not increased the requirements for municipal dischargers for many years despite its having concluded that towns and cities are a major source of nutrient pollution that is not removed through use of the currently-required minimum technology called “secondary treatment.” Oregon does not step into the breach; the DEQ is more than willing to let polluters keep polluting. In fact, the Oregon DEQ ranks 49th among 50 states in keeping its permits up-to-date.

Second, states are required to evaluate whether discharges will cause or contribute to violations of state goals, established as water quality standards. Instead, states like Oregon devise creative work-arounds to federal regulations and often ignore them altogether. Oregon is so determined to use this approach that it finds itself unable to issue many permits at all. And, when it does, few DEQ containoregon water pollution permit limits that require dischargers to install pollution controls. DEQ permits also suffer from a long-term failure to ensure that permittees are required to monitor their discharges and the quality of the water into which they discharge. As a result, there are never sufficient data upon which to issue new permits.

Third, there is the EPA-devised concept of “mixing zones.” Even though permits are required to prevent dischargers from causing or contributing to violations of water quality standards, Ecology routinely includes mixing zones—areas of rivers and marine waters where permittees may lawfully violate standards. There is a saying that “dilution is not the solution to water pollution” but, in fact, it is the solution preferred by DEQ and EPA. NWEA even had to go to court to dump a rule in which DEQ proposed to allow mixing zones that would be miles long!

Last, industries located in cities are allowed to discharge into sewage collection systems, diluting their toxic wastes with water from sinks and stormwater from roads. These industries are called “pretreaters” and, while they are subject to some restrictions, they gain significant advantages from this built-in dilution. States, such as Oregon, could increase requirements on such pretreaters to restrict pollution beyond federal requirements, but they do not. When Oregon adopted new human health criteria in its water quality standards that made them particularly stringent, NWEA urged the DEQ and its board, the Environmental Quality Commission, to focus on actually getting rid of toxic pollution through increased pretreatment requirements. The request fell on deaf ears.

 

Oregon Water Pollution Discharge Permits are Broken Two Ways

Oregon water pollution discharge permit program fails in two departments: quality and quantity. These days it’s almost impossible to evaluate the quality of DEQ permits because there are so few issued. Although NPDES permits are valid for five years when they are issued, so long as a permittee has submitted an application in a timely fashion its existing permit will last indefinitely. This is what we call “zombie permits.” Because there is no remedy in federal law for a permit program that comes to a near complete halt when the EPA refuses to step in, NWEA filed suit in state court to resolve the issue of Oregon’s terrible permit backlog in 2017.

Oregon water pollution discharge permits also suffer from terrible quality. Although the Clean Water Act requires that permits not allow discharges to cause or contribute to violations of water quality standards, Oregon routinely issues permits that fail to meet that basic requirement. Even a consultant found that Oregon’s permits often do not reflect the restrictions required by standards and the TMDL clean-up plans that are intended to restrict discharges when a waterbody has already been found to have unsafe levels of pollution.

Oregon Water Pollution Discharge Permits - Related News

Federal Agencies Criticize Oregon Logging Reform Efforts

In their 2010 settlement with NWEA over Oregon logging practices on the coast, the Environmental Protection Agency ...

NWEA Sues EPA for Approving Temperature Clean-Up Plans (TMDLs)

Following the February 2012 federal court ruling in our Temperature Standards lawsuit that Oregon could not ...

Oregon Fails to Control Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution from Logging and Agriculture

The most persistent source of water pollution in this country comes from nonpoint sources – the logging, farming, ...

Oregon Water Pollution Discharge Permits – Related Documents

Court Order Medford Sept 2021 October 21, 2021 Court Order Medford Sept 30, 2021 Magistrate Judge Clarke’s Findings and Recommendation (ECF No. 58)... Download
News Release Medford Win Sept 2021 October 21, 2021 New Release regarding the NWEA court win over the City of Medford. federal judge ruled that Medford is... Download
Ashland NPDES Permit Comments Oct 2021 October 18, 2021 NWEA's Ashland NPDES Permit comments submit on October 18, 2021. Despite the length of time it has taken... Download
Medford Summary Judgement 2021 June 9, 2021 Plaintiff is entitled to summary judgment on the First Claim for relief. A dispute of material fact prevents... Download
NWEA v Medford Opening Brief January 22, 2021 Nutrient pollution is “one of America's most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems,”... Download
Oregon DEQ Performance with Consent Judgment on Zombie Permits April 10, 2020 Letter to Oregon Department of Justice regarding Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality Performance... Download
Letter to Oregon EQC and Legislators re: Zombie Permits April 10, 2020 Oregon Department of Environmental Quality One-Year Performance with Consent Judgment on Water Pollution... Download
Zombie Permit Settlement Package November 29, 2018 This package contains the following documents; Zombie Permit Fact Sheet, News Release, and Court Order. ... Download
Notice of Intent to Sue City of Medford OR October 27, 2017 NWEA's Notice of Intent to sue City of Medford, October 26, 2017. ... Download
Letter to Oregon Legislature re: Richard Whitman April 3, 2017 Letter to the Oregon Legislature regarding comments made by Richard Whitman, Director of Oregon's Department... Download

 

Join Our Email List

I prefer not to become a member at this time, but I’d like to get NWEA emails.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Share This