Clean Willamette: Stop Toxic Dumping

What's New

Victory! on June 28, the Governor signed Senate Bill 737, a bill to reduce toxic pollution going into Oregon’s waterways. The bill requires the Department of Environmental Quality to prepare a statewide survey of toxic pollution in waterways, and requires polluters to develop and implement toxic pollution prevention plans as part of their Clean Water Act permits.

How You Can Help

E-mail your state senator and urge him or her to support Senate Bill 737 to reduce toxic water pollution in Oregon.

Brief Summary

The Willamette River is in some ways the life-blood of Oregon. Its banks in the fertile Willamette Valley lured the first pioneers to settle in Oregon and today, 70 percent of Oregonians live in the valley. But the Willamette River is also a toxic dumping ground. In addition to run-off from agricultural and lawn treatment chemicals, industrial polluters discharge million of pounds of toxic pollution into the river. Even worse, state regulators allow industrial discharges to dump pollution at levels that exceed health-based water quality standards.

Environment Oregon is working to reduce toxic pollution going into the Willamette and other waterways across the state. We are urging state policymakers to require that industrial polluters meet water quality standards at the point their wastewater enters the river. This year, we are working to pass Senate Bill 737, which will start reducing toxic discharges for the most dangerous toxic chemicals: those that persist in the environment for long periods of time and accumulate in the tissues of plants, animals, and people. SB 737 will require the Department of Environmental Quality to prepare a statewide survey of toxic pollution in waterways, and order polluters to develop and implement toxic pollution prevention plans as part of their Clean Water Act permits.