{"id":1845,"date":"2022-12-14T11:24:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T16:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/after-report-on-toxic-salmon-in-columbia-river-northwest-lawmakers-call-for-action\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T11:04:40","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T15:04:40","slug":"after-report-on-toxic-salmon-in-columbia-river-northwest-lawmakers-call-for-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/after-report-on-toxic-salmon-in-columbia-river-northwest-lawmakers-call-for-action\/","title":{"rendered":"After report on toxic salmon in Columbia River, Northwest lawmakers call for action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>State and federal lawmakers in the Pacific Northwest, as<br \/>\nwell as the region&#8217;s tribal leaders, are calling for environmental policy<br \/>\nchanges and increased funding to address toxic contamination in salmon&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.opb.org\/article\/2022\/11\/22\/pollution-contamination-threat-salmon-columbia-basin-pacific-northwest-tribes\/\">following an investigation by Oregon Public Broadcasting and<br \/>\nProP\u00fablica<\/a>. Salmon is a pillar of tribal diets and culture, often served at<br \/>\nceremonies and largely considered a medicine.<\/p>\n<p>Although tribal members and researchers have been raising<br \/>\nconcerns about this contamination for decades, federal and state governments<br \/>\nhave failed to consistently monitor the waters of the Columbia River Basin for<br \/>\npollution in fish. Given the gaps in testing, ProPublica and Oregon Public<br \/>\nBroadcasting did their own, revealing levels of contaminants in Columbia River<br \/>\nsalmon that, when consumed at average tribal rates, would be high enough to put<br \/>\nmany of the 68,000 tribal members living in the basin at risk of adverse health<br \/>\nimpacts.<\/p>\n<p>Fishers dipnet for salmon in the Klickitat River at<br \/>\nLyle Falls in Washington, Aug. 27, 2021. The fishing area is open only to<br \/>\nmembers of the Yakama Nation and those who fish here say it is the only place<br \/>\nsimilar to the type of fishing that existed at Celilo Falls on the Columbia<br \/>\nwhich was flooded when the Dalles Dam was built.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These deeply troubling results directly endanger<br \/>\npeople&#8217;s health and must lead to change,&#8221; Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in<br \/>\nan emailed statement in which he also referenced recent Congressional funding<br \/>\nfor the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program. &#8220;I intend to continue to<br \/>\nfight for funding for this and other programs, as well as policy changes, to<br \/>\nend this toxic threat to Tribal members from the salmon they count on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When pressed for specifics, many of the lawmakers did not<br \/>\noffer any. A spokesperson for Wyden said the longtime elected official will be<br \/>\nworking on the issue with his counterpart Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who did not<br \/>\nrespond to requests for comment. Washington\u2019s Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee wrote<br \/>\nin an emailed statement that the state &#8220;must carry on our work to identify<br \/>\nand clean up contaminated sites, find safer alternatives to keep toxics out of<br \/>\nproducts in the first place, and use our regulatory and enforcement authorities<br \/>\nto limit the amount of toxics going into the water.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tribal members and researchers say the problem requires<br \/>\nmultiple approaches. They say lawmakers must make sure&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.opb.org\/news\/article\/portland-harbor-superfund-cleanup-oregon-epa-tar-globes\/\">companies<br \/>\nare legally and financially responsible for the pollution they emit<\/a>, y<br \/>\nregulators must enforce stricter water quality standards while fast-tracking<br \/>\nindustrial cleanups. Right now, when health agencies issue advisories warning<br \/>\npeople against eating fish from contaminated waters, environmental agencies are<br \/>\nnot required to act, which can allow the contamination to fester.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have fish advisories just about everywhere,&#8221;<br \/>\nsaid Laura Klasner Shira, an environmental engineer for Yakama Nation<br \/>\nFisheries. &#8220;I can\u2019t think of one that has been lifted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Staff with the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/critfc.org\/\">Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission<\/a>, a coordination<br \/>\nand management agency representing area tribes, said that Wyden and Merkley<br \/>\nhave been responsive to tribal leaders\u2019 calls for action in the past,<br \/>\nconducting listening sessions with tribal members and incorporating tribes\u2019<br \/>\nproposed solutions into legislation. If the lawmakers fail to institute changes<br \/>\nthat would protect tribal health going forward, the commission plans to quote<br \/>\ntheir own statements to them in response. &#8220;I\u2019m looking forward to<br \/>\npublishing a letter back to them the next time&#8221; a rule or regulation falls<br \/>\nshort, said Dianne Barton, the group\u2019s water quality coordinator.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., also said that failing to take<br \/>\naction in response to the findings could open up the government to legal<br \/>\nliability. In the mid-1850s, the United States government signed binding<br \/>\ntreaties to preserve tribes\u2019 right to fish for salmon as the country overtook<br \/>\nmillions of acres of tribal land. &#8220;This is the federal government\u2019s<br \/>\nobligation,&#8221; Rep. Blumenauer said.<\/p>\n<p>For its investigation, ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting<br \/>\npurchased 50 salmon from Native fishers along the Columbia River and paid to<br \/>\nhave a certified lab test them for 13 metals and two classes of chemicals known<br \/>\nto be present in the river. The testing showed concentrations of two chemicals<br \/>\n&#8211; mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) &#8211; that the U.S. Environmental<br \/>\nProtection Agency, as well as Oregon\u2019s and Washington\u2019s health agencies, deem<br \/>\nunsafe at the levels consumed by many of the tribal members of tribes living in<br \/>\nthe basin today.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., said she<br \/>\nis considering introducing legislation to address this toxic contamination<br \/>\nimpacting salmon and other fish in the Columbia.<\/p>\n<p>Additional members of the congressional delegations in<br \/>\nOregon and Washington did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government has taken modest steps this year to<br \/>\nclean up the region. In August, the EPA received $79 million over five years to<br \/>\nreduce pollution in the Columbia River after Congress passed the Bipartisan<br \/>\nInfrastructure Law. While this is the most money ever dedicated to cleaning up<br \/>\nthe Columbia, tribal leaders, local legislators and environmental advocates say<br \/>\nit is just a fraction of what is needed to truly address pollution in the<br \/>\nriver.<\/p>\n<p>At the White House Tribal Nations Summit two weeks ago, the<br \/>\nfederal agency announced proposed revisions to the Clean Water Act that would<br \/>\nrequire tribal health and culture to be incorporated into federal water quality<br \/>\nstandards. These standards are used to sustain environmental objectives like<br \/>\nclean drinking water and fish healthy enough for people to eat.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The ability to exercise treaty rights to fish is<br \/>\ncompletely dependent upon clean water and healthy ecosystems,&#8221; Aja<br \/>\nDeCoteau, the executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish<br \/>\nCommission wrote in a letter to the EPA last September, when the agency first<br \/>\nbegan engaging with tribes on this potential revision. &#8220;EPA must consider<br \/>\ntheir treaty-based obligations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Staff with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission<br \/>\nsaid that while the Clean Water Act revisions would be a major step in the<br \/>\nright direction, there are still gaps in the regulatory system that enable<br \/>\ntoxic pollution to continue to be dumped into and spread throughout the river.<\/p>\n<p>For one,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/products\/gao-14-80\">informes<\/a>&nbsp;have found that<br \/>\nthe Clean Water Act does not sufficiently regulate materials like pesticides<br \/>\nand fertilizers that end up on the ground then flow into waterways. This type<br \/>\nof pollution, generated by large-scale farming, timber harvesting and other<br \/>\nindustries, is responsible for a significant share of contamination reaching<br \/>\nthe Columbia River today.<\/p>\n<p>There are also new chemicals constantly entering the market<br \/>\nand ending up in waterways like the Columbia, courtesy of what Barton describes<br \/>\nas the reactive nature of the Toxic Substances Control Act. Historically, the<br \/>\nlaw has not required companies to disclose the health impacts of new chemicals.<\/p>\n<p>The general public, as well as tribal members, will have<br \/>\nmore opportunities to weigh in on the proposed revisions to the Clean Water Act<br \/>\nduring&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/wqs-tech\/revising-federal-water-quality-standards-regulations-protect-tribal-reserved-rights\">public<br \/>\nmeetings<\/a>&nbsp;in January. Anyone interested in submitting written feedback<br \/>\nto the EPA can do so until March 6.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>As these processes play out, the results from the testing<br \/>\neffort will be front of mind for many, especially those who continue to consume<br \/>\nColumbia River salmon. &#8220;It\u2019s definitely concerning,&#8221; said<br \/>\nJarred-Michael Erickson, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville<br \/>\nReservation, a group of tribes whose land abuts a section of the Columbia River<br \/>\nin northern Washington. &#8220;It gives me more fuel to work on these<br \/>\nissues.&#8221;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State and federal lawmakers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as the region&#8217;s tribal leaders, are calling for environmental policy changes and increased funding to address toxic contamination in salmon&nbsp;following an investigation by Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica. Salmon is a pillar of tribal diets and culture, often served at ceremonies and largely considered a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>After report on toxic salmon in Columbia River, Northwest lawmakers call for action - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/after-report-on-toxic-salmon-in-columbia-river-northwest-lawmakers-call-for-action\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After report on toxic salmon in Columbia River, Northwest lawmakers call for action - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"State and federal lawmakers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as the region&#8217;s tribal leaders, are calling for environmental policy changes and increased funding to address toxic contamination in salmon&nbsp;following an investigation by Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica. 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