Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Environmental Protection Agency has rejected Oregon’s Water Quality Standards for protection of human health.  The agency ruled the standards did not reflect how much fish Oregon’s native tribes eat.

The Clean Water Act requires that any time a state revises its water quality standards, the federal government has to either approve or disapprove within 3 months. 

But it took more than 6 years and a lawsuit by the environmental group, Northwest Environmental Advocates for the EPA to finally make their decision last week.

Mary Lou Soscia is EPA’s Columbia River coordinator.

She says the agency expects Oregon to come out with a new draft rule early next year that better reflects native fish consumption.  After that, she says the EPA could then act to approve the new standards.

Mary Lou Soscia: “And we fully expect that what Oregon is presenting is going to meet the litigation that forced us to do this disapproval”.

Nina Bell is the executive director with the group that filed the lawsuit.  She says the Clean Water Act requires the EPA to dictate to the state of Oregon what those levels should be.  And that, says Bell, is something the EPA did not do.