Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Environmental Protection Agency released a sweeping audit Tuesday of the country’s air, water, and land. As Rob Manning reports, good and bad signs are found for the Northwest.

The good news is that the greater Northwest tends to have some of the cleanest air in the country. But the “Report on the Environment” finds that the Columbia River is gaining nitrates and phosphates, after years of improvement.

Still, the Columbia is far cleaner than the Mississippi River, and Northwest fish are not as contaminated as those elsewhere.

The “Report on the Environment” also found some trouble in ocean water.

The so-called “dead zones” off the Oregon Coast are among the worst in the nation. And the EPA found that roughly one-third of coastal estuaries are at least moderately compromised by invasive sealife.

Finally, the EPA report looks into global warming for the first time. It confirms that temperature increases appear worst in the interior west.

It also finds that Northwest forests cannot sequester carbon as well as before, because of logging and wildfires.